https://rupakdey.com/news Milestones and updates from Rupak Dey: research, awards, and events. en Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT https://rupakdey.com/news/pantry-ai-first-place https://rupakdey.com/news/pantry-ai-first-place pantry.ai took 1st place among 27 teams statewide at the 2026 Desert Dev Lab Hackathon in Albuquerque, held April 18-19. Our team, Crimson Devs (with Christopher Meraz and Antonio Luna), built an AI application that photographs a pantry, identifies items with Gemini Vision, estimates expiration dates, and pairs alerts with recipe suggestions to cut household food waste. Covered by the [NMSU Newsroom](https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-students-take-first-and-second-place-at-statewide-desert-dev-lab-hackathon/s/41256a2b-6f2f-412e-aa90-e3e31edbe3c8) and [KTSM](https://www.ktsm.com/news/nmsu-takes-top-2-spots-at-statewide-hackathon/). Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT https://rupakdey.com/news/hacknmsu-launch https://rupakdey.com/news/hacknmsu-launch hackNMSU, NMSU's first hackathon, brought 55 students from majors across campus, computer science to nursing to aerospace engineering, to Science Hall for a seven-hour build day. As CSSA Founding President I led sponsorship, judge recruitment, and event operations, backed by the NMSU Computer Science Department, the NMSU FinTech Lab, and the Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship. Covered by the [NMSU Newsroom](https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-students-build--code-and-showcase-projects-at-inaugural-hack-nmsu/s/7bf856a4-f1e1-4831-a1ef-ced257bb6423) and [Organ Mountain News](https://www.organmountainnews.com/nmsu-hack-nmsu-student-projects-inaugural-event/). Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT