Final Project: Project Proposal

Introduction: Who am I?

Hi, my name is Yavneeka Patel and I'm a Sophomore student of the Mount Holyoke class of 2017. I am a double major in Economics and Computer Science, and I'm here today to seek a $50-$60 investment in my final project: LingoLearner

Need: Who's the customer & What's their problem?

In today's globalized world, it is not enough to simply know that other cultures exist, we must immerse ourselves and soak up knowledge about the world around us. Language is one of the key ways we do this.

Since elementary school I've been learning Spanish through formal classes. While these classes provided structure and helped strengthen my grammer skills and vocabulary base, I found myself missing a key portion of learning a language: speaking. Almost every language class has a speaking portion attached to it, so the exposure was definitely there. But as a person who gets anxious speaking in public, the thought of doing so in a foreign language seemed extremely daunting. This meant I was less likely to speak up in class in fear of pronouncing something wrong or forgetting a grammer rule. And ultimately, this meant I was falling behind my classmates who were steadily gaining confidence in their speaking skills.

Solution: How do we solve the problem?

There is an ingeneous tried-and-true solution to increasing the confidence of a speaker: practice. As Hillary Clinton once said: "If you're not comfortable with public speaking - and nobody starts out comfortable; you have to learn how to be comfortable - practice. I cannot overstate the importance of practicing. Get some close friends or family members to help evaluate you, or somebody at work that you trust.".

The problem with foreign languages is that friends and family may not know the language, or the person might not feel comfortable going to someone close to them for help. The [INSERT CATCHY ROBO NAME HERE] deals with both of these issues by giving a person the comfort of knowing that no one is judging them for their speaking ability, as it is a non-sentient being that is listening to them speak, while giving them much needed practice.

The type of product I'm proposing will help people gain confidence in their speech and hopefully normalize speaking in a foreign language so that it does not feel so terrifying to speak in front of other people. The robot does this by conversing in the foreign language of choice with the user. The goal is to have the robot able to converse in the four common languages taught and used in the U.S.: English, Spanish, French, and Italian. The robot will know how to respond to basic phrases that every introductory student learns. The goal is to eventually have the robot learn new phrases to allow it to grow with its user. The robot is also designed in way to look as non-threatening as possible. By designing it to look more "toy-like" a user is more likely to find it fun to interact with the robot. The picture to the left is of a Pygmy Puff from the Harry Potter universe. The pygmy puff is a small ball of fluff that one can't help but want to snuggle and play with. The inspiration for LingoLearner's look comes from this creature.

Market: Who is the target audience?

There are three main target groups for this robot.

• The first are the youth that are just beginning to learn a language. These people are curious and have not yet felt the anxiety that comes with speaking in a foreign language. By accessing them early and giving them a prototype of this robot, we would be able to make conversing in a foreign language normal.

• The second group are those people that would eventually stop learning the language because their speaking skills are not up to par. According to Gallup, twenty-six percent of adult Americans speak a language other than English well enough to hold a conversation. This is simply not enough in today's melting-pot of a world.

• The last group are those that are out of school but find themselves wanting to learn a new language, be it for work or leisure. According to the same gallup poll mentioned previously, bilingualism increases with education. So for those outside of the educational walls, learning a new language is more of a stretch, as the person would have to find the resources themselves to learn, and more than likely would not have a companion to practice the language with.

By hitting all of these audiences, we would be able to maximize the amount of people whose lives are getting enriched by language.

Business Model: How do we make money?

I am in the very early stages of this project and hoping to have a working prototype in 9 weeks. If the prototype is successful, the next plan of action is to survey schools and language-teaching websites about whether they would buy the robot, and form a website to sell the robot. Eventually, we could license the robot to a large educational teaching firm and make billions.

Exit: How do you get a return on investment?

At this stage I would not pitch the robot on SharkTank. It's far too early and I would undoubtedly get jeered out of the tank for not having enough sales to form a business. Until the prototype makes it to the selling process, the return on investment will not occur.

From the perspective of this class, the return on investment could be the fact that I am building a concrete, tactile robot and learning useful hardware skills. This project, along with what it teaches me, could help to convince the president that the Robotics Workshop class is useful and cause more support for the class. This would be beneficial as it means the class would be offered again next semester allowing more people to learn about robotics and create their own robots.

People: Who is on the team?

A project of this multitude could not happen without the help of numerous talented individuals. These individuals include:

• The T.A. team (Eva Snyder, Shani Mensing, Alyx Burns)

• Luke Jaeger, the CS Technical Project Admin

• Audrey St.John, the class instructor

• My parents (who will be offering moral support)

#finalproject