WHEN A TEAM of San Jose State College enterprise college students acknowledged the trail towards tutorial counseling and course curriculum was sophisticated and messy, they turned to AI for an answer.
Gabriel Castaneda, co-founder of CollegeBot.AI, stated the scholars launched the unreal intelligence platform as a startup firm to assist college students navigate by way of their class necessities and handle lengthy wait occasions for face-to-face appointments with college advisors. The 5 college students, who beat out 35 different groups on the 2024 Silicon Valley Innovation Problem occasion held at SJSU on Dec. 3, attracted not simply college students however enterprise capitalists and angel buyers.
“At first it was just to allow students easy access to information from the school’s website because it’s really bloated with all these different resources and drop down menus. It’s difficult to find stuff,” Castaneda, an operations and provide chain administration main, instructed San José Highlight. “An AI interface retrieves all that information using natural language, so students can ask it like they’re talking to another person.”
Castaneda, who graduates in 2026, stated they started constructing the platform over the summer season and watched it rise in reputation as fall 2024 courses started. The corporate has about 20,000 college students utilizing the location, with hopes that extra will discover the app by way of advertising and word-of-mouth, Castaneda added.
“We figured, AI is changing all of technology, right? The school is not going to catch up to it quickly enough so why don’t we do something about it,” he instructed San José Highlight.
All the pieces college students must succeed
CollegeBot.AI, much like different in style AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google’s recently-developed Gemini, can reply questions relating to tutorial advising, class syllabuses and extra for SJSU faculties college students.
Enterprise entrepreneurship main Nicolaus Hilleary, who graduates this yr, stated they acquired greater than $500,000 in funding from enterprise capitalists and angel buyers. He stated they have been capable of join with enterprise capital corporations by way of staff member Kai Zhao, a arithmetic main.
Hilleary stated Zhao had connections to some enterprise corporations in California with Chinese language backgrounds.
A screenshot of the CollegeBot.AI homepage. (Screenshot through collegebot.ai)
“We were able to meet with a lot of either venture firms or angel investors and pitched them our idea,” Hilleary instructed San José Highlight. “Obviously you get rejected from some people, right? You have to knock on 100 doors before one opens for you, so it’s definitely been a long process this semester.”
Leo Wang, founding father of PreAngel Fund, stated he selected to spend money on the corporate as a result of it offers college students tutorial assets at a pace corresponding to these supplied at personal universities.
“Maybe you have simple questions that the AI bot can answer without having to go talk with an (advisor) directly,” he instructed San José Highlight. “To avoid those small talks and greetings, AI is much more efficient.”
‘Disruptive and transformative’
CollegeBot.AI wasn’t the one synthetic intelligence-powered innovation to win an award on the 2024 Silicon Valley Innovation Problem, as three out of 5 profitable groups featured AI-based improvements.
Anuradha Basu, an SJSU enterprise professor and organizer of the Silicon Valley Innovation Problem, stated CollegeBot.AI has sturdy potential — particularly with the rising demand for accessible tutorial assets.
“We were able to meet with a lot of either venture firms or angel investors and pitched them our idea. Obviously you get rejected from some people, right? You have to knock on 100 doors before one opens for you, so it’s definitely been a long process this semester.”
Nicolaus Hilleary, SJSU scholar and CollegeBot.AI co-creator
“AI is the disruptive and transformative technology of the moment, and it is going to affect every single industry and every single business. So, it’s not surprising that young SJSU entrepreneurs want to build businesses using AI,” she instructed San José Highlight.
The corporate’s long-term aim is securing a contract with SJSU and broaden to campuses nationwide.
Accounting main Glerys Gonzalez stated she met “the boys” in September and requested to affix the staff as a result of she needed to develop the corporate. Beginning as a advertising intern, Gonzalez is now employed because the CollegeBot.AI digital marketer.
“This isn’t just a project, we’re an established company,” she instructed San José Highlight.
