Tennesseans looking to take a scenic drive could soon have an AI-powered tour guide at their fingertips, thanks to a new app in development by a team of computer science students and recent graduates at Tennessee Tech University.

The app, titled “YourTour,” aims to serve as a “digital billboard” for hidden gems and off-the-beaten-path restaurants, scenic overlooks, historical markers and more. Its AI functionality will allow the app to personalize routes and deliver curated travel suggestions based on users’ interests.

It all started when Garrett Hayes, a 2024 graduate of Tech’s Department of Computer Science, experienced car trouble on a road trip through rural Georgia. The mishap led to a detour through scenic areas of the state he wouldn’t have otherwise discovered.

Most recently, a four-person team of Tech computer science students presented the concept at Tech’s 2025 Eagle Works Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition – a Shark Tank-style event hosted by the university’s Center for Rural Innovation in which students compete before a panel of judges for high-dollar prizes.

The team, led by Nate Dunlap, Wes Talley, Johnny Mac Brentlinger and Samuel Morrison, won the coveted first-place award of $10,000 and a strong vote of confidence as they move toward hopes of a public launch.

The student competitors explained that the first-place prize gives them even greater motivation to turn their proposal into a workable app that anyone can download on their devices.

“We want it to become real,” said Talley, a Macon County native on the team who graduated in May. “We truly believed that we could make our idea become a reality if we had that first place prize money and the belief of those judges.”

Nate Dunlap, a Coffee County native on the team who also graduated in the spring, said the team is “wanting to try and launch this as soon as we can.”

“We have people who are working on the app itself and thinking through ‘what is it going to look like? How should it feel for the user?’” Dunlap said. “Once we have a good value proposition, we want to do a full launch.”

Eagle Works Manager Andrea Kruszka is a firm believer in the app’s promise, too.

“Doing double duty running Eagle Works as well as the Tennessee Center for Rural Innovation’s rural tourism program, I am so excited for the potential this app has and am working to connect the team with tourism industry leaders who could provide guidance and lots of opinions,” said Kruszka. “I think it’s an exceptional idea that could highlight places that deserve more attention and get people off the interstate and into some incredible small towns and rural areas.”

Dunlap and Talley add that YourTour could help directly support tourism in the Upper Cumberland – citing local favorites like Ralph’s Donuts, Bee Rock and Gainesboro’s Stolen Coin Oyster Bar & Bistro as examples of hotspots that passersby wouldn’t necessarily know about, but could be alerted to using the app.

“Those are places that people love around here that we want to get them on the map,” said Dunlap.

The app will initially be specific to Tennessee, Dunlap explains, but the team hopes to eventually expand its capabilities to suggest points of interest and travel routes nationwide.

More than just a hefty prize, the teammates say Tech has supported and honed their skills over the years in many ways – especially through competitions on behalf of the university’s Cybersecurity Education, Research & Outreach Center, or “CEROC.”

They also cite faculty such as Benjamin Burchfield, lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, as a source of valuable feedback and creative inspiration.

“He has been the biggest support through all of this,” said Talley. “He knows a lot about business and a lot about developing software, so that was huge. It really helped us to believe in ourselves.”

While YourTour took home top honors at Eagle Works, it wasn’t the only award-winning proposal. The competition, now in its twelfth year, awarded more than $21,000 in scholarship prizes across four teams of student competitors. Learn more at https://www.tntech.edu/innovation/eagleworks/.