ROYBI, the AI-powered robot dedicated to early childhood education and language learning, announced the closing of its seed round from investors in Silicon Valley. The company plans to allocate the $4.2 million closed towards accelerating development and manufacturing prior to product launch.

“We’re thrilled to close our first round of investment,” said the Founder & CEO Elnaz Sarraf.

Elnaz added, “This capital is the start of a tremendous value that we can bring to families around the world.”

ROYBI provides a uniquely tailored teaching experience. Using its machine-learning technology, it delivers content based on a child’s learning ability, including over 500 lessons, stories, and songs that continuously update. The ROYBI app provides parents with full control in selecting daily and weekly lessons while tracking their child’s progress.

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With its specialized technology and content, ROYBI is gearing up to have a significant impact on the early education industry. Through strategic partnerships with global educational initiatives and retailers, the company anticipates being in as many homes and schools as possible over the next few years.

Currently, ROYBI is in the process of launching its pilot program across the globe, starting with the United States and later expanding into Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The company plans to increase the availability of its platform to make personalized education more accessible to young children, parents, and families everywhere.

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“Our education system needs fundamental change,” Sarraf explains. “The way we teach our children at an early age needs to keep pace with today’s advancements. To better prepare children to become leaders in a future far different from our own, we need to make changes. At ROYBI, we believe it is necessary to revise our current education practices to meet the evolving needs of children.”

Using innovative technologies from Silicon Valley and best educational practices from Finland through the partnership with xEdu Accelerator, ROYBI is at the frontier of personalized education. ROYBI invites you to join this journey to make personalized learning both available and exciting to young children all over the world.

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Enjoying and having fun is also an important part of the learning process because it sparks a child’s curiosity and encourages them to push beyond their limits.

Know My Company

What is Hack? What makes the Hack laptop offerings stand out in the market?

Hack is a full-stack, Linux-based laptop that is designed for everyday use but has a very unique superpower — the benefit of inspiring kids to learn how to code. Through a playful and fun narrative, kids are encouraged to access real computer code and change the parameters to directly impact their experience.

The product evolves along with the child and as it does, more and more paths are opened for them to explore. All of this “learning while they play” occurs in a safe, ad-free and virus resistant sandbox environment with parental controls. The Hack is the screen time that parents should feel good about for their kids.

Is Hack only beneficial to children or could people of all ages use it?

Although we are targeting kids 8+ and have been developing and testing the product with that demographic in mind, getting familiar with coding is something important for all ages. When you learn by doing, it is much more impactful.

Enjoying and having fun is also an important part of the learning process because it sparks a child’s curiosity and encourages them to push beyond their limits. We encourage Hack to be a family experience and are bolstered that this is, indeed, the case. We continue to receive positive feedback from our beta program that suggests that parents are having a lot of fun using Hack with their children. We are hoping that grandparents will join in too!

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Tell us about one industry that will truly benefit from using the Hack laptop other than education.

We are surrounded by software! Computer programming is significantly affecting all industries today, from the most obvious like science and technology to the auto industry, food production, fashion, and even diamonds! It truly does not matter what profession your child will find themselves interested in. If he or she wants to be an artist, a musician, a doctor, an engineer or a farmer, being familiar with coding language is going to be a necessity.

At the end of the day, we are committed to empowering the next generation with creative problem-solving skills that can be universally applied. Success for us includes more than just equipping kids with coding skills. Rather, we aim to provide a dynamic foundation for the next generation of thinkers.

Where do you see the Hack laptop three years down the line?

The Hack is going to evolve as our children and their skills evolve. In three years, our goal is to have an even more robust content offering for kids to explore. Like most subscription content services, we hope to offer a variety of content to satisfy a variety of different levels and interests.

Unique to Hack will be that we have a cast of characters that will guide users through their experience, encouraging them to take bigger risks and try different avenues. The skills users cultivate with Hack will help them build self-confidence and challenge the status quo. Our goal is to enable a new generation to feel empowered by technology and comfortable in being proactive with it, rather than being beholden to it and consuming technology passively. We want Hack to be the laptop every family has in their homes because it is the safest and most robust, play-based coding platform available.

Will learning through gaming be the biggest disruption in pre-teen education in America?

Saying “learning through gaming” will be the “biggest disruption” might be overstating it a bit. But with the pre-teen obsession with gaming at an all-time high, it will definitely be an important vehicle for learning not only in America but worldwide.

When we were starting to prototype our product, we did a survey with our engineers asking them how they started coding.  100% of them answered that they began by trying to hack games they played as kids to gain an advantage.

“Learning by doing” in my experience has always proved more effective and infinitely more enjoyable than passive learning. I believe that sparking the curiosity and encouraging kids to want to learn coding language through the tools in Hack is what will inspire children to create innovative and exciting opportunities for a whole new generation.

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What inspired you to be part of a company in a niche technical sphere such as making STEM learning fun for children? 

I am a woman in a tech world. If you think that tech is mainly dominated by men here in the US, you should see the industry in Brazil! It is very rare to find female entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

When I founded my first company, one of the biggest challenges my partners and I faced was that we have no coding experience.

Because of this, I had to hire and manage a team of engineers that I didn’t completely understand. Luckily, 7 years ago, a lot of us were in the same boat! I was fortunate enough to have had time to learn on the job. Today, I may not have been as lucky. If you want to be successful in any industry, you have to understand that software is going to play a very important role in whatever you are doing. Getting ahead of that and understanding how computer technology works are of crucial importance.

My biggest inspiration, however, is my 10-year-old son. He is fascinated with science and technology and can’t help himself from constantly asking, “How does this work?” about almost everything! My general response if the question does not concern a natural phenomenon is “software!” He wants to be able to build things, to hack games, to create websites, to build a 3D leg for our tripod dog among so many other pursuits. I cannot, however, see him interested in sitting still in a classroom to learn code or any of these other things. The Hack is a perfect solution to get him excited about the learning experience. He builds real things as he has fun!

We see that Hack is powered by Endless OS, tell us about Endless OS.

Endless OS is a very user-friendly Linux-based operating system. The product was first developed to serve under-served populations in emerging markets that had no familiarity with computers and limited access to the internet. Because of this, “ease of use” was always crucial in our product development. The interface is based on smartphones, which is something familiar to those users.

Because the Endless OS is open source, it guarantees access to an enormous amount of free software and content built by the community. It also comes pre-loaded with a lot of educational and entertainment content to serve areas in which data is not available or is very expensive. At the same time, the operating system provides parents with a sense of security, because their children have access to relevant content without being exposed to all the risks associated with the open internet.

As a female CEO in tech, what are the main challenges you would say women in tech face?

The challenges women face in technology are often unique and varied. For me, my challenges were simple. As I said before, I was not an engineer and my knowledge of real code was limited.

To compensate for that, I felt I needed to thoroughly study our market and how our users behaved. Armed with this knowledge, I was able to create, with a great team, the vision for the product and then hire an amazing group of people with extensive technical knowledge to achieve our vision.

I grew up in a household of three girls with an entrepreneurial mother who was an incredible role model and a father who was amazingly supportive. However, as my career in technology advanced, I realized that more often than not I was the only woman in the room. I decided immediately to make it my personal mission to both hire and cultivate female leaders.

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How do you keep updated on the latest trends in the technological space?

I read a lot, study other companies’ best practices, try different products, etc.  More than that, I try to implement processes in the company that allow fast learning cycles. We build, test and improve things every day and are grateful to customers for sharing their experiences.

What is one gadget/application that you cannot live without?

I think the obvious gadget for everyone nowadays is the cell phone, right?

Open doors request transportation, pay bills, listen to music, order food… and eventually, I even make a call or two!

If not technology, what would be your alternate career choice?

That is a hard question to answer! I am attracted to things that have fast learning cycles. I studied marketing in grad school and liked to understand human behavior and reactions to different stimuli.  It was, however, always more fascinating for me to be able to measure the results and quickly tweak the messages to optimize the performance. That puts me squarely back into technology, doesn’t it?!

Thank you, Roberta! That was fun and hope to see you back on AiThority soon.

• About Roberta
• About Hack

About Roberta

Roberta (Beta) Antunes, is a global business leader and ambitious industry disrupter. Prior to joining Hack as CEO, Beta co-founded Hotel Urbano in Brazil and grew it to a $500 Million valuation in less than 5 years. As an entrepreneur and mother of a ten-year-old, she is passionate about bringing to market a computer that helps kids learn how to code through play, and giving families a practical computer for everyday use.

About Hack

Hack is a real computer that uses the Linux-based, open-source Endless Operating System. Only on the Hack computer can kids access and modify the source code, see their changes and learn how to code in a playful, safe and authentic coding environment.

The post AiThority Interview Series with Roberta Antunes, CEO at Hack appeared first on AiThority.

IEEE Examined How Artificial Intelligence (AI) will Impact the Lives of “Generation Alpha” Children in the Future

AI is the most fantasized topic among all contemporary technologies. And, parenting — the toughest chore since time immemorial. When the two get together, it’s ought to turn heads. And it did, as IEEE recently released their study, titled, “Generation AI: A Study of Millennial Parents of Generation Alpha Kids.” IEEE examined how AI impacts the lives of millennial parents and the future of “Generation Alpha” children.

The key takeaway — a majority of millennial parents might consider hiring an AI tutor for their child, and may even pick an AI nanny to care for kids in their golden years. From childcare to healthcare and pet adoption, millennial parents see Artificial Intelligence technology enmeshed throughout the lives of their tech-infused offspring.

The “Generation AI: A Study of Millennial Parents of Generation Alpha Kids” survey shows how millennial parents with Generation Alpha children (those seven-years-old or younger) think growing up interacting with AI technology will impact the lives of their children.

63% of Millennial Parents would rather have AI help them manage thei Gen-Alpha kids live independently in their golden years!

Born in 2010 and through 2025, Generation Alpha is considered by many to be the most tech-infused demographic, and AI technologies are expected to infiltrate nearly every aspect of their lives.

Parents Are Less Worried If AI Is Behind the Wheel

Getting a driver’s license is a new stage of independence for teens, but with self-driving car technology on the horizon, the IEEE survey found that millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids are slightly more nervous about their child driving for the first time alone (31 percent) than their child riding in a self-driving car alone for the first time (25 percent).

However, 44 percent of parents are equally worried about both scenarios.

AI, Not Kids, Preferred by Millennial Parents for Care During Golden Years

Experts say AI will power smart devices in the home that support physical, emotional, social and mental health, from monitoring and assistive devices like intelligent walkers to robot-assisted dressing. About two-thirds of millennial parents (63 percent) would rather have AI help them live independently in their golden years, while just 37 percent prefer to rely on their own children, the study found.

AI Pets Put Real Ones in the Doghouse, While Some Families Welcome AI Nannies 

AI is powering pet robots that can identify, greet, obey, and entertain the family.

48% of millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids say they would be likely to get a robot pet instead of real pet if their child asked for one, according to the survey.  Moreover, 55% of fathers are more likely than mothers (42 percent) to get a pet robot for their kids.

Because AI is giving life to walking and talking robots that are becoming more adept at human behavior, 40 percent of millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids say they would be likely to supplement or replace a human nanny with a stay-at-home robo-nanny to help take care of their children.

AI and Parenting: Emotional and Physical Health

To keep Gen Alpha kids engaged, millennial parents are using apps, interactive screens and artificial intelligence-powered devices that 44 percent say also increases their own focus as parents, as a result.

In addition, the survey reports —

• Although two-thirds (64 percent) of millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids say that AI and other technologies give them time to do other things, two-thirds (63 percent) agree that technologies, including AI, have diminished quality time with their child.
• Millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids are nearly twice as likely to agree (45 percent agree, 23 percent disagree) that AI and other technologies minimize their frustrations as a parent.
• Two in five millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids (39 percent) have either complete or a great deal of trust in AI to help diagnose and treat their children if they become sick. Almost half (46 percent) have some trust.

AI Helps Learn Faster; AI Tutors are Definitely Attractive!

In the future, “smart” toys and AI apps currently in development have the potential to respond to human language and a child’s behavior or enable real-time monitoring and enhancement of vocabulary learning. According to the IEEE survey, a majority of millennial parents (80 percent) say AI technology increases their expectations that their Generation Alpha babies will learn faster and more than they did, while for 20 percent, expectations are the same or less.  In addition, three quarters (74 percent) of millennial parents say they would consider an AI-powered tutor for their child.

AI Pushing Millennial Parents to Encourage Gen-Alpha Kids to Study Engineering?

Many experts believe that engineering is driving a myriad of world-changing activities, from space exploration, drones, and computer science, to health, medicine, and biology; and from vehicle technology to consumer electronics, to name just a few.

About three-quarters of millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids (74 percent) say they will encourage their child at least somewhat to consider studying and pursuing a career in engineering (including 38 percent who will strongly encourage them) given the world-changing activities in that field.

“Generation AI: A Study of Millennial Parents of Generation Alpha Kids” surveyed 600 parents, ages 20–36 years-old, with at least one child seven years old or younger. The surveys were conducted 2017 June 13–15.

The post Millennial Parents Feel More Secured About AI Babysitting Their Generation Alpha Kids! appeared first on AiThority.

MENSIA KOALA Is A Medical Device Disguised As A Therapeutic Video Game On An Interactive Tablet Connected To The Brain Activity; It Treats ADHD, Attention Deficit Disorders With Or Without Hyperactivity, Children, And Adolescents  

Mensia Technologies, French MedTech startup, leads the new booming category of Digital therapeutics with its revolutionary « at home « neurofeedback, to train the brain and cure neuropsy disorders without drugs.

Co-founder INRIA-IT2, existing shareholders and now HARA, which are business angels experts in medical device category, joined this fundraising. BPI de Rennes is also part of this tour.

Mensia Technologies was born out of INRIA in 2012. The IT expert labs in Rennes are computing real-time signaling softwares. The neurofeedback technique is non-invasive, at home and without drugs. MENSIA KOALA treats ADHD, Attention Deficit Disorders with or without Hyperactivity, children and adolescents. This unique medical device is a therapeutic video game on an interactive tablet connected to the brain activity.

Children learn to control their attention by exercising 3 times a week during 4 months of treatment. Visual feedback given during the game, allows the children to learn, control and create automatisms. Six years of R&D with 12 $ Millions invested, including the last largest clinical multicentric trial never ever made, NEWROFEED-Koala, successfuly led to the grant of a CE mark class IIa in Europe. Sales kickstart in March for France.

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37 health points of care from French national partner HOMEPERF, delivers family training for home use of Koala. The device is prescribed and ordered directly on the website. Family received their Mensia Koala at home: all items ready to use for 4-month treatment, with webportal supervision. Children benefit from significant reduction of their attention deficit and or hyperactivity with long-lasting effects. Benefit/Risk ratio is extremely favorable and no adverse event compared to the amphetamines drugs (Ritaline).

Michel du Peloux, CEO of Mensia Technologies: « We are proud to deliver the first worldwide digital therapeutic device to treat ADHD with a Class IIa registration for medical scripts and follow up all over Europe. Far from neurogaming, we have 5 patents, randomized clinical trials and state of the art expertise in brain-computer interface. Our pipeline of « at home neurofeedback » is promising: resistant chronic low back pain despite opiods, is our next medical device. Mensia Technologies initiates now the next tour for a series A of 20 M$ aiming to the USA deployment.

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