Building Something Real: Safal Maharjan and Saksham Dangol's AI Chatbot Journey at Academia International College
Most students spend their college years learning theory and waiting for the day they'll finally get to apply it. Safal Maharjan and Saksham Dangol didn't wait. Right now, as part of Academia International College's startup incubation program, the two are deep into building an AI-enabled chatbot — turning what could have been just another class project into a real product with real ambitions.
"I've always been fascinated by how AI can solve everyday problems. The Academia Incubation Program gave us the opportunity, mentorship, and confidence to turn our idea into a working AI chatbot. It's exciting to see something that started as a classroom discussion evolve into a real product."
— Safal Maharjan
Two Students, One Ambitious Idea
Safal and Saksham are currently part of the incubation cohort at Academia International College, working on an AI-powered chatbot designed to make conversations with technology feel more natural and useful. It's the kind of project that, a few years ago, might have stayed a personal side experiment. Instead, it's being developed inside a structured program built specifically to help students like them push an idea from concept to something closer to a finished product.
What stands out about their journey isn't just the technology; chatbots and AI tools are everywhere now. It's the fact that two students are being given the room, mentorship, and institutional backing to actually build one from the ground up, rather than just studying how one works.
Why Academia International College Is Backing This
Academia International College, affiliated with Tribhuvan University and based in Gwarko, Lalitpur, has built its academic reputation on programs like BSc CSIT, BCA, BBM, BBS, and MBS. The incubation program is the college's way of extending that reputation beyond the classroom, treating students not just as learners, but as builders.
By actively promoting projects like Safal and Saksham's AI chatbot, the college is signaling something important:
- Innovation is welcome here — students working on emerging technology like AI are given visibility and support, not just tolerated as an extracurricular interest
- Mentorship is built in — students get guidance from faculty and industry-connected mentors as they navigate technical and business challenges
- Ideas are taken seriously — a chatbot built by two undergraduates is treated as a legitimate incubation project, not a hobby
- The college sees itself as a launchpad — the goal isn't just graduation, but graduates who've already built something before they leave
What an AI Chatbot Project Like This Involves
Building an AI-enabled chatbot isn't just about writing a few scripted responses — it typically means working through natural language processing, designing conversation flows that actually feel helpful, and testing the product against real user behavior. For students still in college, that means learning to balance coursework with the demands of an evolving technical project while also thinking like founders: Who is this for? What problem does it solve? And how does it get better over time?
That combination, technical skill plus product thinking, is precisely what an incubation program develops. It's one thing to learn how AI models work in a lecture; it's another to be accountable for shipping something that people will actually use.
A Signal to Other Students
Stories like Safal and Saksham's matter beyond the two of them. When a college publicly highlights students building something ambitious, it sends a message to every other student on campus: your idea doesn't have to wait until after graduation. If it's good enough and you're willing to put in the work, there's a structure here to help you build it now.
That's the real value of Academia International College promoting activities like this, it's not just about one chatbot succeeding or failing. It's about normalizing the idea that students can be founders while they're still students and that the college is willing to stand behind them while they figure it out.
"If you have an idea, don't wait for the perfect time to start. The Academia Incubation Program provides the guidance, resources, and environment to transform your ideas into reality. The experience has taught me more than any classroom lecture ever could."
— Saksham Dangol
Looking Ahead
It's still early days for Safal and Saksham's chatbot and for the broader incubation program itself. But the trajectory is clear: Academia International College is positioning itself as a place where student ideas are given a real chance to grow, with AI-driven projects like this one leading the way. If the momentum continues, this project won't be the last chatbot or the last company to come out of a dorm-room idea and an incubation desk at AIC.
