Student-Built, Community-Tested: The AI App Connecting North Carolinians to Critical Resources

In this episode of Kinwise: AI Insights for Education Leaders, host Lydia Kumar sits down with Satviki and Anwita, the first-place winning team from the NC AI Solve-a-Thon, and their coach Nina Darnell, Spark Lab leader for Cabarrus County Schools. Together they built NC Connect Link, an AI-powered app that helps people across North Carolina find jobs, housing, food, healthcare, and legal aid in one place. 

Key Takeaways for Education Leaders

-They built for real people. Satviki and Anwita designed NC Connect Link for people who are stressed, in a hurry, and not necessarily comfortable with technology, adding natural language input, multilingual support, and typo handling based on real user feedback.

-Customer discovery is a learnable skill. The team reached out to libraries, local organizations, school teachers, and administrators to test their app before the competition and kept iterating until the last minute based on what they heard.

-AI was a teammate, not a shortcut. They used Claude and ChatGPT to debug code and think through problems.

-Students don't have to wait to make a difference. As Satviki put it: "We don't have to wait until we're older to make a real difference. We can start whenever our curiosity begins."

-The app is still growing. NC Connect Link has expanded from major urban cities to all of North Carolina, rural and urban, and the team is working toward an App Store and Google Play launch by end of summer.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
.0000000001Welcome back to Kin Wise AI Insights for Educators.

(00:02):
.0000000003I'm your host, Lydia Kumar, and this is episode two of our NC AI Sath on series. 3 00:00:08,30.0000000002 --> 00:00:11,240 If you haven't listened to episode one yet, I'd encourage you to go back and start there.
I sat down with Farrah Berro, Matthew Mayo, to hear about how this competition came to life and what it took to pull it off.
It's a great foundation for everything you're about here because today we meet the students.
I'm joined by Nina Darnell, the Spark Lab leader for Cober County Schools, where she coordinates spark NC programming across the entire district.

(00:30):
Nina brings a background that spans higher education, nonprofit work, and a master in education technology.
And Gch channeled all of that into coaching today's guest through the Sabbath on process.
.000000001Those guests are Sed Viki, a 10th grader at Cox Mill High School with a passion for technology and math who hopes to one day launch her own tech company in Anta, a ninth grader at Cox Mill High School, who loves building projects and has her sites set on universities like Harvard. 10 00:00:55,475.000000001 --> 00:00:56,15.000000001 Together. 11 00:00:56,345.000000001 --> 00:01:05,255.000000001 They built NC Connect Link, an AI powered app that helps people in North Carolina find critical resources like jobs, housing, food, healthcare, and legal aid all in one place. 12 00:01:05,465.000000001 --> 00:01:11,885.000000001 They gathered real user feedback, iterated on their design and took first place at the AI sellathon, and they are not done yet. 13 00:01:11,945.000000001 --> 00:01:16,864.980430528 Let's get into it I'm really excited to have all of you on the show today. 14 00:01:16,864.980430528 --> 00:01:21,574.980430528 I'm so excited about the project and the work that you did through the Ai Sabbath on and Future Minds. 15 00:01:21,634.980430528 --> 00:01:25,84.980430528 And I wanna start out today by having, um, your coach, Ms. 16 00:01:25,84.980430528 --> 00:01:32,284.980430528 Darnell, share a little bit about her background and then she'll pass it to one of our young ladies here to, to introduce themselves as well. 17 00:01:32,847.254403131 --> 00:01:34,107.254403131 I'm Nina Darnell. 18 00:01:34,237.254403131 --> 00:01:38,77.254403131 I'm the Spark Lab leader for our district in Keber County. 19 00:01:38,557.254403131 --> 00:01:43,357.25440313 I plan and schedule and coordinate all of the spark and sea programming for the entire district. 20 00:01:43,837.25440313 --> 00:01:53,397.25440313 Um, a little bit about my Background is, I come from higher education, so I worked at Fair State for about almost nine years before I moved down to North Carolina. 21 00:01:53,737.25440313 --> 00:01:58,17.25440313 I also started a non-profit profit, when I was in Michigan. 22 00:01:58,17.25440313 --> 00:02:00,597.25440313 So I have an art background as well. 23 00:02:01,197.25440313 --> 00:02:04,137.25440313 And then I have my master's degree in education technology. 24 00:02:04,407.25440313 --> 00:02:12,487.25440313 And so I use all of those different things in what I do and, I can bring all of that knowledge base into spi, can see as I do my programming. 25 00:02:12,487.25440313 --> 00:02:17,317.25440313 And so it's really cool to be able to kind of combine all of the things that I love. 26 00:02:17,886.2222914 --> 00:02:18,936.2222914 You're so well rounded. 27 00:02:18,936.2222914 --> 00:02:21,146.2222914 I feel like you have this vast, vast experience. 28 00:02:21,146.2222914 --> 00:02:24,814.26348478 Who are you gonna hand it to? I'm gonna hand it over to Anta. 29 00:02:25,484.31375981 --> 00:02:27,469.31375981 Okay, so I'm Amita. 30 00:02:27,529.31375981 --> 00:02:30,814.31375981 I'm a ninth grader at Cosmo High School, ke Bridge County Schools. 31 00:02:31,249.5611689 --> 00:02:32,759.5611689 And, said Viki. 32 00:02:33,494.5611689 --> 00:02:46,299.5611689 Yeah, so I'm a sophomore at Cox Mill High School, and I have a passion for technology and math, and my goal is to become a software engineer, and I'm gonna surely start my own company focused on developing technology that helps people in their everyday life. 33 00:02:46,877.13869042 --> 00:02:54,527.13869042 I feel like you just queued up my question of what sparked your interest in the problem that your team start decided to solve. 34 00:02:54,527.13869042 --> 00:03:08,783.82990329 if you could kind of share in your own words a little bit about the problem you were trying to solve, and then how did you find that problem and why did you choose to focus on that? our problem, like I mentioned, I really love like solving real world problems with technology. 35 00:03:09,143.82990329 --> 00:03:15,743.82990329 And so we were just, while we were brainstorming for this, we were just thinking about all the problems in our community right now. 36 00:03:16,223.82990329 --> 00:03:32,113.82990329 The biggest problem I think right now, and maybe some, most of the people just overlook this problem, but the problem is that joblessness, like people don't have jobs and due to, if they don't have the jobs and stuff, that leads to them not having housing. 37 00:03:32,713.82990329 --> 00:03:36,673.82990329 Food or shelter or stuff like that because they don't have money. 38 00:03:37,213.82990329 --> 00:03:49,403.82990329 And so we taught how, and then yes, there are resources out there which like help people like, find resources, but they have to go to different websites for different needs. 39 00:03:49,553.82990329 --> 00:03:52,643.82990329 So for, if they have like jobs, they have to go to a different website. 40 00:03:52,643.82990329 --> 00:03:54,923.82990329 And then if it's shelter, they have to go to a different website. 41 00:03:54,923.82990329 --> 00:04:09,718.82990329 If it's like, medical emergency, they have to go to a different website, but there is like, no, a single website, like, which gives you, like, all in one place and, all the like, government websites or like Google or chat, GPT or any other AI. 42 00:04:10,873.82990329 --> 00:04:16,903.82990329 They just give you sometimes long, wrong information or just long lists of links, which you don't really have. 43 00:04:17,423.82990329 --> 00:04:21,323.82990329 if we are stressed or something, we don't have the time to like go through 50 different links. 44 00:04:21,323.82990329 --> 00:04:23,873.82990329 'cause that, that's just like overwhelming people. 45 00:04:24,203.82990329 --> 00:04:34,253.82990329 So we thought, how about we build a solution where they can just like ask the chat bot a question and get their answer in like five seconds, which is reliable and all of that. 46 00:04:34,767.60381951 --> 00:04:43,217.60381951 One thing you said, at the very beginning of your answer was, this is a problem that a lot of people overlook, but obviously neither of you overlooked this problem. 47 00:04:43,607.60381951 --> 00:04:54,422.60381951 What do you think gave you the perspective to recognize that this was a real problem in your community and one that you wanted to help solve? personally, everybody goes through this problem. 48 00:04:54,452.60381951 --> 00:05:06,692.60381951 Even our parents went through this problem and we know how it feels like we've seen them like going stressed, like we've seen them and then they were not able to find resources on time, but they eventually did. 49 00:05:06,692.60381951 --> 00:05:08,822.60381951 But it took a lot of time for them to do that. 50 00:05:09,62.60381951 --> 00:05:13,82.60381951 And we went online, we did some research, and then we did all of that. 51 00:05:13,82.60381951 --> 00:05:17,762.60381951 And then we taught, okay, yeah, this is a problem not only for parents, but everybody else. 52 00:05:18,375.07248102 --> 00:05:34,485.07248102 Anja, do you have anything to add to how you kind of thought about solving that problem or how it, I don't know, like why it mattered to you personally? Yeah, so as Sat was saying, like our inspiration really came from seeing our own parents struggle, like resources and support they needed the most. 53 00:05:34,875.07248102 --> 00:05:51,405.07248102 We realized that a lot of people in our community face like similar challenges, whether it's food, healthcare, or legal aid, and there wasn't an easy way to connect people to health and that's why you ball taught like why is not build a solution that makes a real difference for our communities. 54 00:05:51,735.1054689 --> 00:05:53,985.1054689 Did you have a moment when you were building your. 55 00:05:54,390.1054689 --> 00:06:05,456.4107236 Solution where you thought, okay, this feels like it could turn into something really meaningful and it, I don't know, did, did you have a moment where it went from like an idea to something that felt really real and tangible? Yeah. 56 00:06:05,456.4107236 --> 00:06:19,616.4107236 So, the moment that really hits, it's because when we started, testing our app with real people across different counties and different cities in NC because we made a feedback form and we sent it over to different, like the people. 57 00:06:19,666.4107236 --> 00:06:20,596.4107236 first we sent it out to Ms. 58 00:06:20,596.4107236 --> 00:06:24,226.4107236 Darnell and she sent it over to the people she knows. 59 00:06:24,346.4107236 --> 00:06:29,776.4107236 And then personally we reached out to local organizations and all of them like libraries or. 60 00:06:30,696.4107236 --> 00:06:34,146.4107236 There were some organizations that already were helping these kind of people. 61 00:06:34,146.4107236 --> 00:06:43,576.4107236 So we reached out to them, we reached out to our school teachers, we reached out to our administration, we reached out to many people, and they sent it over to the people they knew. 62 00:06:43,586.4107236 --> 00:06:48,206.4107236 And then so when they started saying, okay, wait, this is actually really helpful. 63 00:06:48,506.4107236 --> 00:06:50,766.4107236 And some people also mentioned that if. 64 00:06:51,81.4107236 --> 00:06:58,321.4107236 If this is like, really in existence, this could change everything and it could actually help millions of people in North Carolina. 65 00:06:58,951.4107236 --> 00:07:06,851.4107236 And because they also mentioned that, finding the resources really quickly without having to struggle is like really helpful. 66 00:07:06,881.4107236 --> 00:07:12,131.4107236 So that's when we really realized that, okay, this is actually something impactful to our community. 67 00:07:13,516.4107236 --> 00:07:25,688.98164754 what gave you the courage to take what you had built and then put it out into the world? And what was that, what was that like for both of you? to be honest, we wanted to know like how our app is. 68 00:07:25,688.98164754 --> 00:07:27,968.98164754 Like, we wanted to get genuine feedback from them. 69 00:07:28,238.98164754 --> 00:07:32,678.98164754 So first, that's why we reached out to the people we knew and were comfortable with. 70 00:07:32,698.98164754 --> 00:07:42,278.98164754 So that they would give us like feedback and then eventually, once we got comfortable getting that feedback and improving it and all of that, it went out to many other people. 71 00:07:42,578.98164754 --> 00:07:44,288.98164754 So it kind of went like that. 72 00:07:44,620.3759695 --> 00:07:44,890.3759695 Ms. 73 00:07:44,890.3759695 --> 00:07:53,50.3759695 Darnell, I know that you played a role in helping connect what they had built with actual people who tested it and gave feedback. 74 00:07:53,390.3759695 --> 00:07:57,830.3759695 what was that experience like for you to be able to say, Hey, my students that I'm coaching have built this. 75 00:07:58,220.43534769 --> 00:08:04,770.43534769 it was a great experience for me because I felt like they needed to, have different eyes on it. 76 00:08:05,250.43534769 --> 00:08:10,770.43534769 And so as they come in and we meet and we go over it, I'm gonna give them a certain amount of feedback, right. 77 00:08:10,770.43534769 --> 00:08:16,80.43534769 But I know what their process has been from start to wherever we meet, we're meeting at. 78 00:08:16,526.77359026 --> 00:08:23,576.77359026 So I think it's important to be able to get different eyes on it, fresh eyes to kind of see exactly what they're doing. 79 00:08:23,576.77359026 --> 00:08:36,76.77359026 And so, I sent out their feedback forms with the app attached to it so people can use the app and kind of see how it works and what it does, and if it's doing what we intended for it to do. 80 00:08:36,196.77359026 --> 00:08:37,396.77359026 And then the other thing. 81 00:08:37,904.29833117 --> 00:08:56,880.57059799 Is, kind of getting them ready for their pitch and using the tools from the feedback, taking that information and applying it so that once they're ready to do their pitch, they can say, okay, here's what we got from our feedback and these are the changes that we made based on the feedback that we received. 82 00:08:57,49.36100814 --> 00:08:59,449.36100814 and I think that really made them stand out a lot. 83 00:09:00,269.36100814 --> 00:09:00,509.36100814 Yeah. 84 00:09:00,509.36100814 --> 00:09:13,39.36100814 That's so compelling when you're able to take feedback from real people and then implement that feedback and make what you're building even more useful but I wanna kind of walk, walk back because I know you, you built this product and part of the AI sellathon is that you're. 85 00:09:13,254.36100814 --> 00:09:15,594.36100814 Solving a problem using AI tools. 86 00:09:15,594.36100814 --> 00:09:26,484.36100814 And so I would love to hear more about your process and how you actually created your application and what it looked like for you to build initially, get that feedback and then make edits. 87 00:09:26,514.36100814 --> 00:09:35,879.19466763 What, what was that like and how did you do it? So we were really surprised like how AI can actually help you think creatively and strategically and not just give answers. 88 00:09:36,389.19466763 --> 00:09:43,379.19466763 So it helped us organize information, explore ideas, and even suggest solution that we hadn't even thought of. 89 00:09:43,739.19466763 --> 00:09:48,419.19466763 So it felt like having a teammate who could really support us on, in our app. 90 00:09:48,974.26316078 --> 00:09:53,118.89134082 Siki, what about you? the big part of ALVATON is the part of ai. 91 00:09:53,458.89134082 --> 00:09:59,938.89134082 in our project, AI was a really important part of how we build app and I did most of the backend part. 92 00:09:59,938.89134082 --> 00:10:01,878.89134082 we, made the AI work. 93 00:10:02,325.05572438 --> 00:10:10,265.05572438 As intended because I know many AI tools are giving incorrect information or collecting personal data and misusing it and all of that. 94 00:10:10,305.05572438 --> 00:10:12,825.05572438 we personally went through the whole thing. 95 00:10:12,885.05572438 --> 00:10:18,735.05572438 We made sure that it's not collecting any personal data, it's not giving any wrong information and all of that. 96 00:10:18,915.05572438 --> 00:10:21,940.05572438 And we also used it to help us understand the input better because. 97 00:10:22,275.05572438 --> 00:10:26,935.05572438 before I started this project, I didn't have much information on how this all works. 98 00:10:26,935.05572438 --> 00:10:44,170.05572438 So I did some research What AI tools did you use to build your project? So we use tools like, chatt, PT, and Cloud, and all of that because, we needed help like debugging stuff because when we actually read the code and it doesn't work, we don't have like many people to turn to. 99 00:10:44,620.05572438 --> 00:10:50,890.05572438 So the only tool we could turn to is ai, although it might not be right all of the times, but it's mostly right. 100 00:10:50,890.05572438 --> 00:10:56,25.05572438 So we use the, Claude and Chat GPT to help us debug, and then we just like. 101 00:10:56,513.23576352 --> 00:11:00,443.23576352 We did the whole main coding part, but it helped us debug and all that. 102 00:11:00,983.23576352 --> 00:11:05,789.01854239 Did you have experience coding before this project and had you built applications before? Yeah. 103 00:11:05,789.01854239 --> 00:11:13,529.01854239 I built a couple applications before this, Alvaton, but Alvaton was the only thing where I used different languages. 104 00:11:13,709.01854239 --> 00:11:22,599.01854239 And in like one application before, all I did was like, maybe Python, just Python, just JavaScript or just, JSO or something like that. 105 00:11:22,599.01854239 --> 00:11:23,319.01854239 But I never know. 106 00:11:23,319.01854239 --> 00:11:26,109.01854239 They like combine all the languages and try something new. 107 00:11:26,469.05768133 --> 00:11:33,749.05768133 Anta, did you have experience with coding before this? Um, yeah, I bet few, few of the apps and like websites too. 108 00:11:33,809.05768133 --> 00:11:39,929.05768133 The, as Aiki said, does the main one where we actually combine all of our languages and work together. 109 00:11:40,919.05768133 --> 00:11:49,409.05768133 Yeah, that's a big jump to be able to do this combination and then build something that you were actually testing and getting, getting feedback from real people. 110 00:11:49,559.05768133 --> 00:12:06,214.05768133 How long did it take you to build your application? I would say it took about like a month and month to month and a half, I would say, And so the first application we built for this alvaton, like our NC Connect link, it was not that advanced and stuff. 111 00:12:06,484.05768133 --> 00:12:11,164.05768133 So when we actually became the finalist, we improved that and then we sent it over to the feedback. 112 00:12:11,164.05768133 --> 00:12:15,64.05768133 And based on the feedback, we kept editing it until the very last minute. 113 00:12:15,64.05768133 --> 00:12:22,114.05768133 And then, even now we are taking it further and we edited the app again, and then we are putting it for a different competition. 114 00:12:22,144.05768133 --> 00:12:28,434.05768133 And eventually we'll, make it fully functionable and put it into Play Store and Apple store. 115 00:12:28,820.724348 --> 00:12:33,200.724348 So you really, you have kind of a, a long-term plan of what you're, what you're doing. 116 00:12:33,200.724348 --> 00:12:43,890.724348 You're not, you didn't just stop you, you have your next competition and then you'll, you'll try to roll this out is what's the next competition that you're working on right now? it's ready set app. 117 00:12:43,890.724348 --> 00:12:53,240.724348 So it's similar, it's just not like ai, but it's like a competition where you build mobile apps to solve a community problem. 118 00:12:53,240.724348 --> 00:12:54,260.724348 So, yeah. 119 00:12:55,514.05768133 --> 00:13:05,634.05768133 What was the hardest part of building your solution? So I would say the hardest part was making sure the app actually responded correctly when in different situations. 120 00:13:05,874.05768133 --> 00:13:07,989.05768133 So like, you know how humans are like. 121 00:13:08,355.724348 --> 00:13:10,245.724348 Humans, right? They're not chat bots. 122 00:13:10,245.724348 --> 00:13:12,405.724348 They cannot, they're not like robots. 123 00:13:12,405.724348 --> 00:13:17,715.724348 They cannot type in the way I wanted to type it in, right? So the, different people type in differently. 124 00:13:17,715.724348 --> 00:13:26,295.724348 So I wanna make sure that our app responds no matter how the user types in, and gives them them like accurate results and all of that. 125 00:13:26,625.724348 --> 00:13:32,389.05768133 And then some people will also type in with a lot of typos, a lot of messy, unclear ways. 126 00:13:33,19.05768133 --> 00:13:36,19.05768133 And so I still wanna make sure that it works smoothly. 127 00:13:36,19.05768133 --> 00:13:39,229.05768133 It doesn't like get like interrupted and all of that. 128 00:13:39,229.05768133 --> 00:13:43,249.05768133 And then making sure it was just like working properly was a challenging part. 129 00:13:43,574.05768133 --> 00:13:51,824.05768133 And Vito, was that the same, most challenging part for you, or did you have something else? figuring out like how to design the app, which is like really simple and easy to use for everyone. 130 00:13:52,304.05768133 --> 00:13:58,484.05768133 And since our goal was like to help people find quick resources, we really had to think about access, bolting clarity. 131 00:13:58,664.05768133 --> 00:14:05,334.05768133 So making, something like that works really well and easy to understand and definitely was a challenge. 132 00:14:05,874.05768133 --> 00:14:09,654.05768133 As one thing that you've talked a lot about is going through those feedback cycles. 133 00:14:09,834.05768133 --> 00:14:15,507.39101466 Did you get feed a lot of feedback that helped you understand how to make this more clear? Definitely, yeah. 134 00:14:15,927.39101466 --> 00:14:37,652.39101466 What was some, do you have like a piece of feedback or something that someone told that you, somebody told you that was kind of like surprising or really changed how your, your app functioned? We had, a lot of good feedback we got because, before we actually finalized our app some people said that it was not responding the very first time, like they had to repeat themselves on all of that. 135 00:14:37,817.39101466 --> 00:14:51,77.39101466 Some people said that it didn't understand when I type in, like something like a typo or something like that, and the typo handling, we added it based on the user feedback because before we finalized the app, we didn't have the type of handling and everything. 136 00:14:51,137.39101466 --> 00:14:54,647.39101466 And so when people actually said, okay, yeah, this is like not working. 137 00:14:54,647.39101466 --> 00:14:57,737.39101466 When I type in something like in a plain human language or. 138 00:14:58,637.39101466 --> 00:15:00,107.39101466 Typo or something like that. 139 00:15:00,317.39101466 --> 00:15:01,937.39101466 So we fixed it. 140 00:15:01,937.39101466 --> 00:15:06,227.39101466 And then the resources, sometimes it had limited resources before. 141 00:15:06,527.39101466 --> 00:15:10,37.39101466 Like it only had like urban, major urban cities in nc. 142 00:15:10,307.39101466 --> 00:15:15,497.39101466 So people said that if it's not working for the other cities, so we added all the cities and stuff. 143 00:15:15,767.39101466 --> 00:15:22,717.39101466 But after the, so Alvaton, we, included all the cities across nc, like even rural and urban areas. 144 00:15:22,717.39101466 --> 00:15:25,207.39101466 So we are definitely taking it from the feedback. 145 00:15:25,722.39101466 --> 00:15:30,372.39101466 I, use a lot of typos when I type things into apps, so I'm glad you fixed that. 146 00:15:30,372.39101466 --> 00:15:34,582.39101466 AA do you have a different piece of feedback that you wanna talk about? I think so. 147 00:15:34,632.39101466 --> 00:15:35,92.39101466 So, yeah. 148 00:15:35,92.39101466 --> 00:15:35,877.39101466 Okay, cool. 149 00:15:36,267.39101466 --> 00:15:42,957.39101466 So I'm curious, I mean this project you were doing in school, but also it's very different from what you usually do in school. 150 00:15:42,957.39101466 --> 00:15:59,872.39101466 And so I'm wondering like from your perspectives, what skills did you develop during, as you prepped for the AI sellathon did you develop that you don't usually get to develop in school? So this project really taught like how to approach problems critically and like communicate clearly. 151 00:16:00,292.39101466 --> 00:16:12,22.39101466 And so I learned like how to like think from others' perspectives, like really considering like what they need and how our solution could help them and using technology to create real world problems. 152 00:16:12,22.39101466 --> 00:16:22,377.39101466 But skill I hadn't explored before and it's something I'll carry forward That Viki, what about you? in school, all I do is create like normal projects and all that. 153 00:16:22,687.39101466 --> 00:16:27,867.39101466 for me at least, I haven't been involved in like, Tech heavy courses in my school yet. 154 00:16:28,167.39101466 --> 00:16:34,667.39101466 So the process I went through this like project was really like different from what I do in school. 155 00:16:34,697.39101466 --> 00:16:41,717.3910147 'cause like I'm really interested in tech and I wanna build some solutions that actually help people out, but I don't get to do it in school because. 156 00:16:41,757.3910147 --> 00:16:44,547.3910147 It doesn't have like all the courses and all of that for it. 157 00:16:44,847.3910147 --> 00:16:53,357.3910147 So definitely, and that's the main reason I got into Perkin C two to learn like all this text skills, needed for, my passion. 158 00:16:53,747.3910147 --> 00:16:57,347.3910147 And I just combined all the skills and then built this project. 159 00:16:57,887.3910147 --> 00:16:58,607.3910147 Very cool. 160 00:16:58,667.3910147 --> 00:17:16,35.724348 how did your teachers or mentors support your work during the Sellathon process, and what were some specific things they did that helped you move forward? So our teachers and mentors were really helpful, especially when it came to giving us feedback and helping us think more deeply about our idea. 161 00:17:16,425.724348 --> 00:17:24,955.724348 They really pushed us not to just focus on building the app, but they also, think about the real impact it could have and how we are presenting it. 162 00:17:25,315.724348 --> 00:17:26,5.724348 For example, Ms. 163 00:17:26,5.724348 --> 00:17:30,950.724348 Darnell, she really like helped us, thing, get the feedback or. 164 00:17:31,615.724348 --> 00:17:39,235.724348 Help us, like get the presentation skills we needed so that we can like actually pitch it really good for the alvaton and all of that. 165 00:17:39,285.724348 --> 00:17:45,285.724348 she also helped us getting our like idea like in to actually implement it and all of that. 166 00:17:45,735.724348 --> 00:17:52,365.724348 So they gave us suggestions on how to improve it and then a final version was the outcome was like, really good. 167 00:17:52,765.724348 --> 00:18:08,332.3910147 on Weta, other ideas of things that teachers or mentors did to help you? I would just say like they really ask us questions that really made us think deeper about a solution, and their feedback obviously made us stay on track and build our up more stronger. 168 00:18:08,677.3910147 --> 00:18:15,667.3910147 When you think about like the regular school day, most of the time you don't have space to build a project like this. 169 00:18:16,87.3910147 --> 00:19:06,762.3910147 Do you see opportunities in any, I don't know, in your classes, just in high school in general, for there to be more projects like this? And if there are, what do you think teachers or principals would need to do to make this more accessible to students who didn't get to participate in Aath, who don't participate in a Sabbath on? I think, putting courses like this in schools will be really, important especially in tech focused schools, like for example, our school, it has a lot of tech courses and it also has a separate program for tech, which helps build, Python developing skills for Future generations since they're already focusing on the future aspect I think, problem solving skills, especially using tech, is also a really important skill that students must learn So I think adding a course like that in the regular school courses, making it a part of like. 170 00:19:07,47.3910147 --> 00:19:23,562.3910147 Daily school courses and all of that would really be helpful and also very engaging for students who enjoy using tech skills What do you think Aita? Yeah, I feel like, so since we already have like courses like tech, like Python especially, maybe like. 171 00:19:23,955.724348 --> 00:19:39,135.724348 Really teaching them like how to like build projects like from scratch and giving them feedback on that and like probably like simple projects and really like having like a passion class I guess would really help students. 172 00:19:39,612.3910147 --> 00:19:45,972.3910147 It is interesting 'cause you learned tech skills and you implemented tech skills, but you also have talked about problem solving. 173 00:19:46,182.3910147 --> 00:19:56,442.3910147 You've talked about pitching, which is presentation, how you carry yourself, how you speak, and you talked about feedback and reaching out to people and then taking feedback and implementing that. 174 00:19:56,502.3910147 --> 00:20:02,677.3910147 And those are all skills that people use as adults in their jobs, all, all the time. 175 00:20:02,677.3910147 --> 00:20:03,277.3910147 And so. 176 00:20:03,807.3910147 --> 00:20:11,757.3910147 Do you those, those were other skills that I feel that I heard you talk about that I think are really powerful and, and cool. 177 00:20:11,757.3910147 --> 00:20:12,657.3910147 That you were able to learn. 178 00:20:12,937.3910147 --> 00:20:13,117.3910147 Ms. 179 00:20:13,117.3910147 --> 00:20:20,315.6726191 Darnell, did you see them learn other skills throughout this process that I didn't name that are not tech focused necessarily? collaboration. 180 00:20:20,835.6726191 --> 00:20:22,65.6726191 Working as a team. 181 00:20:22,131.376965 --> 00:20:34,220.2461201 They did a really great job doing that, and listening to understand so you can make an informed decision after you've listened to whatever, you know, comes with that. 182 00:20:34,690.2461201 --> 00:20:42,430.2461201 I think they gained those skills as well as, as they continue to kind of work in those areas, they definitely gain those skills as well. 183 00:20:42,867.8435611 --> 00:20:58,587.8435611 It's just so cool to hear about like what you all were able to do, but also what you were able to learn that I, I really see caring forward into whatever amazing things that you choose to do with, with your lives next year and the year after that, and throughout your, your entire lives. 184 00:20:59,24.8196211 --> 00:21:03,104.8196211 so your project focused on helping people find critical resources. 185 00:21:03,134.8196211 --> 00:21:08,294.8196211 And so when you think about real people and you, you talked about your parents a little bit at the beginning. 186 00:21:08,534.8196211 --> 00:21:31,179.5629434 When you think about real people using this to solve real problems, how did that change the way you designed your solution? Or you set up how people interact with your tech product? when we taught, taught about real people, it changed everything how we designed our app because we realize the people, using this will be or might be stressed in a hurry or not very comfortable with technology. 187 00:21:31,399.5629434 --> 00:21:37,879.5629434 we focus on making the app as simple and as clear as possible, and that's why we added features like Lang Natural Language Input. 188 00:21:38,129.5629434 --> 00:21:40,349.5629434 Multilingual support and quick responses. 189 00:21:40,559.5629434 --> 00:21:48,489.5629434 So we didn't have want to like, want the users to have to think way too much or just like act like robots basically. 190 00:21:48,519.5629434 --> 00:21:53,614.7038125 We just wanted them to work for, like, want our app to work for them like perfectly. 191 00:21:53,614.7038125 --> 00:21:59,74.7038125 They don't have to like stress a lot because they're already in so much stress and that we don't wanna like stress them more. 192 00:21:59,134.7038125 --> 00:22:04,474.7038125 So our whole goal is to make our app reduce the stress out of the people. 193 00:22:04,474.7038125 --> 00:22:05,254.7038125 So, yeah. 194 00:22:05,657.297362 --> 00:22:17,356.1665171 Do you have, anything else that you thought about when it came to, I don't know, pe people have ideas all the time, but I think what's really cool about what you did is you thought about the person that you were solving the problem for, and then you got feedback from people who would use it. 195 00:22:17,446.1665171 --> 00:22:26,860.7979223 And so how did that impact your design? Yeah, so as Sat said, like it really made a focus, like to make our app like simple, clear, and really practical. 196 00:22:26,860.7979223 --> 00:22:33,550.7979223 So we wanted something that anyone can use without confusion, like especially during stressful, stressful situations. 197 00:22:33,790.7979223 --> 00:22:38,20.7979223 So we prioritize on features that will actually matter to people the most. 198 00:22:38,70.7979223 --> 00:22:44,303.6771017 what features did you think would matter to people the most? being like simple and real, easy to accessible, and. 199 00:22:44,933.6771017 --> 00:22:47,183.6771017 Really working as how they want it to be. 200 00:22:47,596.3285554 --> 00:22:54,696.3285554 so when you think about the next idea you might have, what do you hope could happen with this idea that you created or what do you hope that. 201 00:22:55,116.3285554 --> 00:23:10,986.3285554 Like when you think about yourself in the future, what kind of problems do you hope that you're con able to continue to solve? So we hope that NC Connect Link could be adopted more widely so that people can quickly access the resources whenever they need it the most. 202 00:23:11,286.3285554 --> 00:23:17,676.3285554 So our ultimate goal is to make it a trust, your GoTo tool that helps communities and families in a meaningful ways. 203 00:23:18,256.802365 --> 00:23:23,158.3793024 Awesome said Viki, do you wanna add anything? No, I think she covered most of it. 204 00:23:23,158.3793024 --> 00:23:34,308.3793024 So we just wanna make our app like, accessible to all the people across NC and if it really works out, then we also wanted to expand like whole nationwide and help people out. 205 00:23:34,908.3793024 --> 00:23:35,538.3793024 Amazing. 206 00:23:35,988.3793024 --> 00:23:46,188.3793024 so if other students across the country have opportunities to do things like you all did in the Sellathon, what kinds of problems do you think they might try to solve or. 207 00:23:47,208.3793024 --> 00:24:07,736.1048393 What advice might you give to someone who's in a similar situation? I think students would come up with many creative solutions and since teens are like really aware of challenges around them, and I think they would, come up with problems in their communities and if they had tools to build solutions with ai, they could really make a difference in their committees. 208 00:24:08,709.6643165 --> 00:24:22,407.7727199 Do either of you have advice for a teen who's thinking about approaching, a challenge in their community and trying to solve it? Yeah, I would say definitely, they should focus on the problems which are not already being focused on. 209 00:24:22,677.7727199 --> 00:24:35,477.7727199 So like, especially for the rural areas, like maybe, focusing on something like that or problems that are over often overlooked in their community, like nobody cares about them, but it's still a major issue and. 210 00:24:36,317.7727199 --> 00:24:44,987.7727199 Maybe like if, let's say finding something is really expensive, maybe try to find a solution that's like will make it less expensive and all of that. 211 00:24:44,987.7727199 --> 00:24:49,957.7727199 So overall, they should just focus on how to make their community even better Amazing. 212 00:24:52,7.7727199 --> 00:24:59,867.7727199 as Sat said, like, look around your community some more problems you wanna solve, and like really go with your curiosity and interest. 213 00:24:59,927.7727199 --> 00:25:09,77.7727199 And I would say mainly like break down into like small steps and reach out to people when you need help and, and, yeah. 214 00:25:09,400.9265948 --> 00:25:09,850.9265948 Awesome. 215 00:25:09,880.9265948 --> 00:25:10,270.9265948 Okay. 216 00:25:10,390.9265948 --> 00:25:18,970.9265948 I am gonna ask you a couple of questions about the future of your app and then I have a closing reflection about what it taught you, that student you are capable of or students are capable of. 217 00:25:19,0.9265948 --> 00:25:25,340.9265948 And I'm gonna ask all three of you that, but, I have a couple of like, just questions about your app 'cause I feel like people will be curious. 218 00:25:25,340.9265948 --> 00:25:41,146.332197 One, if people want to find your app or see it now, is there a way for them to do that or do they have to wait for NC Connect link to be published on the app store? So currently our app is accessible via a public sharing link and which works perfectly. 219 00:25:41,476.332197 --> 00:25:59,66.332197 But the thing is we have to keep republishing our app, because we are on a free version of the thing we built, So I would say right now it's available, but we just have to keep republishing it Can we link a version of your app in the show so that people can see it, or will that be weird for them? I think we can do that. 220 00:25:59,96.332197 --> 00:26:00,866.332197 I I can just keep republishing it. 221 00:26:00,896.332197 --> 00:26:01,256.332197 Yeah. 222 00:26:01,796.332197 --> 00:26:04,226.332197 I think people will be curious who listened to this. 223 00:26:04,236.332197 --> 00:26:04,911.332197 they'll wanna check it out. 224 00:26:04,911.332197 --> 00:26:05,101.332197 Mm-hmm. 225 00:26:05,181.332197 --> 00:26:05,316.332197 I know. 226 00:26:05,316.332197 --> 00:26:06,546.332197 I'm like, I wanna see it. 227 00:26:07,56.332197 --> 00:26:07,896.332197 Yeah, definitely. 228 00:26:08,466.332197 --> 00:26:09,126.332197 go ahead Mr. 229 00:26:10,671.332197 --> 00:26:15,51.332197 On the image that I sent you, it has a link to their app on there. 230 00:26:15,111.332197 --> 00:26:15,531.332197 Perfect. 231 00:26:15,531.332197 --> 00:26:17,656.332197 it also that QR code on there. 232 00:26:18,786.332197 --> 00:26:20,326.332197 Takes you right to the app as well. 233 00:26:20,676.332197 --> 00:26:27,66.332197 going back to the link, we made updates for our app and then the previous link doesn't really like work, so we have to make a new link. 234 00:26:27,126.332197 --> 00:26:29,316.332197 We have the new link, and then I can send it over to Ms. 235 00:26:29,316.332197 --> 00:26:30,936.332197 Darnell and then she can send it over to you. 236 00:26:31,62.9988637 --> 00:26:34,692.9988637 My next question is about the competition that you're in right now. 237 00:26:34,722.9988637 --> 00:26:44,651.332197 I can't remember the name that you said, but the, the new competition you're in, when will you find out about the results or when does that take place? Around like April, like into April. 238 00:26:45,96.332197 --> 00:26:50,346.332197 Okay, so this is, you'll probably by the end of April, you'll know where you stand. 239 00:26:50,406.332197 --> 00:26:51,576.332197 There's gonna be a big update. 240 00:26:52,336.332197 --> 00:27:01,976.332197 I think the finalist decisions come out next week, and then the finalist, like the top eight or 10 I think, They will go to, ville headquarters in Morrisville, NC. 241 00:27:02,611.332197 --> 00:27:07,381.332197 They will present it there and then the top three teams will be gifted like products or something. 242 00:27:07,381.332197 --> 00:27:14,611.332197 I think the first place gets like 700 worth and then second place gets like 200 or 300 and the third place gets 100 or something. 243 00:27:15,200.7809902 --> 00:27:15,890.7809902 Very cool. 244 00:27:15,890.7809902 --> 00:27:22,340.7809902 And then my last question, when is your goal to publish this On Google Play in the Apple store. 245 00:27:22,683.9985375 --> 00:27:33,3.9985375 I would say we're right now planning to do it by the end of summer because we'll have the whole summer to reach out to like different people and get some advice on how to do it and stuff. 246 00:27:33,33.9985375 --> 00:27:35,583.9985375 'cause we don't really have an idea of how to do that right now. 247 00:27:35,983.9985375 --> 00:27:40,543.9985375 so I would say by the beginning of August we should be doing it. 248 00:27:41,208.042895 --> 00:27:50,798.042895 Are there specific resources that you need right now that would help you if anybody's listening to the show and you're interested in supporting, future, the Future Minds Team and the NC Connect. 249 00:27:51,353.042895 --> 00:28:02,583.042895 Link app, what do you need right now to help you move forward to meet your goals? So I think we definitely need some advice on how to get it into App Store and Google Play Store. 250 00:28:03,3.042895 --> 00:28:08,73.042895 'cause we honestly don't know how to do it and all of that unless we go into the deep research of it. 251 00:28:08,133.042895 --> 00:28:10,563.042895 So I think that would be really helpful right now. 252 00:28:10,953.042895 --> 00:28:11,193.042895 Ms. 253 00:28:11,193.042895 --> 00:28:19,583.042895 Darnell, if people are interested in supporting them, I can have them reach out to me I will put them in contact with you people ask me that all the time. 254 00:28:19,583.042895 --> 00:28:23,693.042895 I'm working when I work on, I'm working on a, a business right now. 255 00:28:23,693.042895 --> 00:28:29,3.042895 And people say, what can I do to help you? And sometimes it takes me a minute to figure out what, what I want. 256 00:28:29,3.042895 --> 00:28:37,963.042895 But it's such a good question and I think can really help you find a lot of resources when people are, are, When you're able to articulate what you need. 257 00:28:38,13.042895 --> 00:28:55,203.042895 So my last question after my little side, my side quest into the updates on your apps is when you think about this experience where you were identifying a real problem and building an AI solution, what did it teach you about what students your age are capable of? And I'm gonna have each of you answer that. 258 00:28:55,253.042895 --> 00:28:56,333.042895 and any of you can start. 259 00:28:56,718.042895 --> 00:29:12,38.042895 So I think for me personally, it really showed me that, the students of our age are capable of way more than what usually we think, So if we are given the chance to work on real problems, not just like regular school assignments, we can actually build things that have real impact. 260 00:29:12,38.042895 --> 00:29:19,268.042895 And for me, this project wasn't just about coding, it was about understanding a problem, working as a team, and creating something meaningful. 261 00:29:19,448.042895 --> 00:29:23,878.042895 It made me realize that we don't have to wait until We are older to make a real difference. 262 00:29:23,878.042895 --> 00:29:27,358.042895 We can start whenever our curiosity begins or whenever we wanna do it. 263 00:29:27,806.584182 --> 00:29:32,516.584182 Yeah, so before this I didn't realize like how much like we could do as students. 264 00:29:32,756.584182 --> 00:29:42,386.584182 So working on this app like really showed me like how to tackle like serious challenges, like using technology to help others and really put our ideas into the world. 265 00:29:42,476.584182 --> 00:29:47,216.584182 So it made me feel proud of like what we can accomplish, like when we try our best. 266 00:29:47,905.0755308 --> 00:29:59,665.0755308 I think high school students can accomplish so much and a lot of times, Things get in the way as far as like they'll think they're, that it's a lot more difficult than it actually is. 267 00:29:59,935.0755308 --> 00:30:09,235.0755308 And then where you're able to kind of show them that it's really not that hard, all you have to do is follow these steps, you know, and you can make those different things work. 268 00:30:09,235.0755308 --> 00:30:15,955.0755308 So it's really cool to kind of see those light bulbs go off once they start realizing that, oh yeah, I really can do this. 269 00:30:16,255.0755308 --> 00:30:24,117.0035902 And then that kind of really opens them up to so many other possibilities and things and, the openness to try more stuff. 270 00:30:24,117.0035902 --> 00:30:25,227.0035902 So it's really cool. 271 00:30:27,395.643694 --> 00:30:28,290.643694 Vika and wida. 272 00:30:28,290.643694 --> 00:30:28,500.643694 And Ms. 273 00:30:28,500.643694 --> 00:30:32,880.643694 Darnell, thank you so much for being here and sharing your story with such openness and enthusiasm. 274 00:30:33,225.643694 --> 00:30:38,475.643694 What stayed with me from this conversation is that these two young women didn't start with a cool tech idea. 275 00:30:38,865.643694 --> 00:30:50,315.643694 They started with a real problem that had touched their own families, and from that starting point, they built something, tested it with real people, and proved it based on what they heard, and took it home, and took home first place. 276 00:30:50,375.643694 --> 00:30:55,445.643694 That kind of thinking, human-centered, community rooted, iterative is exactly what the series is about. 277 00:30:55,775.643694 --> 00:30:59,405.643694 If you wanna check out what they built, there's a link to NC Connect link in the show notes. 278 00:30:59,585.643694 --> 00:31:08,115.643694 Go check it out and if you're a developer, educator, or tech professional who'd like to support the Future Minds team as they work toward publishing on the App Store and Google Play. 279 00:31:08,390.643694 --> 00:31:10,70.643694 Reach out to me and I'll get you connected. 280 00:31:11,6.6279544 --> 00:31:13,986.6279544 We've got two more winning teams coming up in this series, stay with Us. 281 00:31:14,226.6279544 --> 00:31:18,636.6279544 You can see all that at our website, kin wise.ai/podcast., 282 00:31:19,147.6450056 --> 00:31:22,152.6450056 Until next time, stay curious, stay grounded, and stay kin wise.