Atharva Berde Earns Spot on Major League Hacking’s 2025 Top 50 List

Atharva Berde, '26 Applied Mathematics, was recently named one of Major League Hacking's (MLH) Top 50 Hackers for 2025 .

MLH is well-known for running hackathons, coding competitions and other events to empower student developers. Every year, the organization recognizes 50 exceptional students from across the globe who are making meaningful contributions in the hackathon community.

Berde is receiving recognition on the Top 50 list due to his work developing AI-powered tools that are focused on both accessibility and social impact.

"I've been consistently going to multiple hackathons," says Berde. "And I always try to build products that can make a difference in today's world."

One of his recent projects is known as Dyslearn, which features an AI reading assistant to support children with dyslexia, as well as a Dysarthria Classifier that analyzes voice recordings to assess speech disorders.

This past April, Berde was a part of HackDavis 2025, where he won a Best Use of Vectara award for Dyslearn.

Berde has also created a San José weather app predictor, a projectile trajectory visualization tool and a platform designed to make education more accessible through AI-powered tutors.

In August, he was a top 16 finalist for Hack Nation's Global AI Hackathon , a competition based around building AI-powered tools to tackle real-world issues.

Berde loves working with Python, a leading computer programming language, as well as VSCode, a source-code editor that was developed by Microsoft. He's generous with his knowledge, often supporting fellow members of the hackathon community with tips and guidance. He's also not afraid to roll up his sleeves and help others troubleshoot various issues that they might bump up against.

As an SJSU student, Berde feels that he has lucked out in terms of finding a supportive community of Spartans who motivate him to continue pushing forward on his goals each day. After graduation, Berde's dream job is to become a software engineer or a machine learning engineer.

"Being named MLH Top 50 has meant everything to me," says Berde. "These past two years have been memorable because of hackathons and the hacker community, and this recognition is incredibly meaningful."