CognifyAI wins Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Georgia’s 11th District

When asked what inspired the creation of CognifyAI, Aarav Balaji said, “When I visited my grandmother in India after five years, I was shocked by how much she had changed. Once bright and endlessly talkative, she now seemed confused and repeated the same statements and questions without realizing it. The warmth in her eyes was still there, but it was clouded by cognitive decline. Alzheimer’s had quietly reshaped her personality, transforming someone whom I had always seen as independent and outgoing. Watching her decline was a difficult experience. It made me realize how devastating cognitive decline is, not just for the person affected, but for the entire family who must serve as caregivers. 

“Later, in 9th grade, I volunteered at a local elderly care center. There, I met several other patients with Alzheimer’s. It was heartbreaking seeing them struggle with activities like eating due to something out of their control. Around that time, I came across a news article exploring how scientists discovered a way to analyze brain scans with AI. It was incredibly fascinating to me, as I had recently developed a strong enthusiasm for AI. 

“Fast forward a few months, I was reading papers in a neuroscience journal and stumbled across research that found a strong link between handwriting decline and early onset of Alzheimer’s. With this finding, and a spark of curiosity from learning about other applications of AI in healthcare, the idea for my project was born. For me, it was the perfect chance to utilize my expertise in machine learning to help others. While developing my full project idea, I discovered how costly and inaccessible brain imaging tests can be for many families, including my own. That realization became my motivation: to develop an affordable, accessible, and handwriting-driven solution for early Alzheimer’s detection.”