Whitecloak Technologies Inc., 20th Floor, Strata 2000, F. Ortigas Jr. Rd, Ortigas Center, Pasig, Kalakhang Maynila – May 25, 2025 – Who would have thought that developing an AI chatbot could be both engaging and achievable in just one day? Participants of GDG PUP’s Build with AI 2025 did exactly this using the Gemini 2.0 API, Streamlit, and ChromaDB!
Hosted by Emmanuel Oaing from GDG PUP’s Community Relations
Department, the event was structured into two main parts: the technical workshops and the project development phase. The day unfolded in the following sequence:
Ingress and Technical Setup
Opening Remarks by Gladwin Ferdz Del Rosario(me), CTO – GDG PUP
Icebreaker
Tech Workshop 1: Intro to Building AI Agents with Gemini 2.0 by Loyd Vendiola
Lunch Break
Tech Workshop 2: Introduction to Building AI Applications with Gemini, Streamlit, and ChromaDB by Danielle Bagaforo Meer
Project Development Phase
Project Presentation
Closing Remarks by John Paul Curada, Data and ML Lead – GDG PUP.
Opening Ceremonies:
The event took place at the inspiring office of Whitecloak Technologies Inc., the event’s venue sponsor. Build with AI 2025 began with the technical setup of tools and software, followed by opening remarks delivered by… me , Gladwin Ferdz Del Rosario , Chief Technology Officer of Google Developer Groups on Campus Polytechnic University of the Philippines . I highlighted the event’s goals: to innovate, to learn, and to connect. This event aimed not only to teach the technical skills needed to build an AI chatbot as the final project but also to spark new connections and possibilities with each other throughout the day.
Next came a lively icebreaker session where participants played human bingo, moving around to complete tasks with other attendees and breaking the ice for collaboration. The icebreaker became a networking session for participants to get to know one another, build connections, and set the tone for teamwork and creativity, a way to spark the aforementioned connections and possibilities throughout the day.
Technical Workshops:
The first technical workshop was led by Loyd Vendiola, Associate Cloud Engineer at Computrade Technology Philippines . He delivered the second workshop: Intro to Building AI agents with Gemini 2.0 . Gemini is Google’s next-generation family of large multimodal models developed by Google DeepMind. Gemini 2.0 processes and understands text, images, audio, video, and code with improved performance, efficiency, and reasoning capabilities. Loyd demonstrated how to create AI agents using simple natural language prompts via the Gemini API or platforms like Vertex AI. Participants learned how developers can define tasks, guide models with instructions, and integrate additional tools or memory to build dynamic, goal-oriented agents. With minimal coding, these agents can interact with users, retrieve information, call APIs, or automate workflows — opening opportunities to embed intelligence into a wide range of applications.
Following this, Danielle Bagaforo Meer , AI x Blockchain Engineer at BayaniChain*, delivered the second workshop: * Introduction to Building AI Applications with Gemini, Streamlit, and ChromaDB **. This session prepared participants to connect all the tools and build a complete AI application — specifically, an AI chatbot. Gemini served as the core engine for natural language understanding and response generation. Streamlit provided an interactive and user-friendly web interface, while ChromaDB offered memory and context through vector embeddings by storing and retrieving relevant information. Danielle guided participants through building an intelligent chatbot capable of meaningful conversations, context retention, and responsive interaction within a web app.
Project Development
Then came the event’s most intense and exciting phase — the project development challenge. Around ten teams worked on creating customized chatbots using their chosen datasets and implementing various features. Participants were deeply engaged: debugging, coding new algorithms, drawing flowcharts to visualize chatbot structure, refining prompts, and integrating APIs. The atmosphere was a vibrant mix of focused energy, collaboration, and rapid problem-solving as teams pushed to bring their ideas to life.
During the project presentation segment, teams showcased their
unique AI chatbot solutions. Some of the participating teams included Iskoder, Chronos, Teresian, Team Watawat, Jet Set Go, and others . Their projects reflected creativity and technical prowess, featuring use cases such as:
A chatbot answering frequently asked questions to assist PUP students
A recipe chatbot suggesting and explaining dishes from a specific cookbook
A location-aware chatbot providing directions based on place names or uploaded images
These presentations highlighted the participants’ understanding of AI’s real-world applications and their innovative approaches.
Concluding Ceremonies:
The event concluded with closing remarks by GDG PUP’s Data and Machine Learning Lead, John Paul Curada . He expressed heartfelt gratitude to all participants, commending their dedication, creativity, and enthusiasm throughout the day. He emphasized the importance of collaboration, continuous learning, and the vast potential AI holds in solving real-world challenges.
Build with AI 2025 is part of GDG PUP’s very own hackathon
competition, Sparkfest , providing participants a supportive environment to develop and improve their projects. An invitation highlighted throughout the day by the event hosts and GDG PUP’s Chief Technology Officer, Gladwin Ferdz Del Rosario which emphasized Sparkfest as a platform where participants could turn their ideas into real-world solutions.
Personal Reflection and Conclusions:
Helping lead Build with AI 2025, I realize it was so much more than just a coding event — it became a true catalyst for innovation and a launchpad for new possibilities. Watching the participants dive into hands-on workshops and then bring their ideas to life through the project phase was inspiring. They didn’t just build AI chatbots; they showcased creativity, technical skill, and practical problem-solving in ways that genuinely impressed me. What struck most was how the event embodied the spirit of sparking connections — not just between people, but also between ideas, technologies, and opportunities. By giving students the platform to innovate and build, they can unlock their potential and turn ideas into meaningful solutions that impact the world around them.
As a famous quote once said:
“The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future. You’re going to look like you have magic powers compared to everybody else.”
Gabe Newell
