From building a personal growth app to developing an AI-powered bug fixer, IIT Madras student AK Deepankar is turning innovative ideas into real-world tech solutions. Deepankar, who is enrolled in the BS in Data Science and Applications programme at IIT Madras, has won USD 10,000 (approximately Rs 9.5 lakh) at Google's All Things Agentic Hackathon for developing ShipGuard, an AI-powered system designed to identify and fix bugs in iOS applications.The win comes months after he secured USD 20,000 (approximately Rs 18 lakh) at the RevenueCat Shipyard 2026 hackathon for developing Bloom, a personal growth app that helps women turn their goals into daily habits.With these two hackathon wins, Deepankar has earned a total of USD 30,000 in prize money for building technology-driven solutions to real-world challenges.HOW SHIPGUARD AUTOMATES IOS BUG FIXINGShipGuard aims to automate the process of identifying and fixing bugs in iOS applications.
When a beta tester reports an issue through Apple's TestFlight, the system investigates the relevant code, proposes a fix, validates it through an actual Xcode build and prepares a GitHub pull request for developer review. Powered by Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK), Gemini and Google Cloud, ShipGuard aims to speed up debugging while keeping developers in control.
It does not automatically merge changes into protected code branches, allowing developers to review proposed fixes before approving them.BLOOM AND SHIPGUARD: TWO HACKATHON WINSShipGuard is not Deepankar's first major hackathon success. Earlier in 2026, he won the Gabby Beckford category at the global RevenueCat Shipyard 2026 hackathon, securing a USD 20,000 prize for developing Bloom.
Bloom is a gamified personal growth app designed to help women turn their dreams into daily action. Rather than functioning as a conventional to-do list, it combines goal-setting, habit-building, financial confidence, journalling and travel.At the heart of the app is a Digital Garden, where users' daily habits contribute to visible growth.
Users can also set personal goals, play short financial mini-games, journal with AI guidance and track their travels through an interactive map.Built using Flutter, Supabase and Mapbox, Bloom aims to make self-development more engaging and less overwhelming. While Bloom focuses on personal development, ShipGuard addresses a different challenge: helping developers identify and fix software bugs more efficiently.Together, the projects demonstrate Deepankar's interest in applying technology to different areas, from everyday habit-building to software engineering.IIT MADRAS JOURNEY AND TECH EXPERIENCEDeepankar is pursuing a BS in Data Science and Applications at IIT Madras.
His academic timeline runs from August 2022 to August 2028. Before joining the programme, he studied Science at Kendriya Vidyalaya, where he scored 86.2 per cent in his pre-university studies.He worked as a UI Developer Intern with the IIT Madras BS programme from July 2024 to October 2025 and completed a six-month multimedia production internship with Paradox, IIT Madras, in 2024.During his time with Paradox, he worked on video editing, multimedia production, event coordination and marketing initiatives.
He also held student leadership roles as a video-editing super coordinator at Paradox 2024 and a design team coordinator at Paradox 2023.His other projects include Etymo, an interactive tool exploring word histories, and ClipIt, a tool for semantic audio and video editing. From personal growth to software engineering, Deepankar's projects showcase how AI and technology can be applied to solve real-world problems.- Ends