As an innovation engine and a facilitator of exponential change, XPRIZE has done a lot for the future. Whether it’s through a lunar program that will see private companies on the moon in a few short years or an adult literacy initiative helping teach people how to read around the world, XPRIZE is making the world a better place for future generation.
This effort is all the more obvious when you consider the fact that they have just announced the 11 semi-finalists for the Global Learning XPRIZE contest. The goal of this XPRIZE is to develop open source and scalable software that will enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic within 15 months.
“Throughout my career, I’ve seen the many ways technology has evolved to help children access an education they may otherwise not have,” said Matt Keller senior director of the Global Learning XPRIZE. “What most excites XPRIZE about these semi-finalist teams is the possibility that their innovative software solutions can exponentially transform the way learning happens across the world, especially in places where children simply cannot get to school.”
If you’re interested in keeping up with the progress of this XPRIZE, follow along on their website, and make sure to check out the competing companies below:
AutoCognita (Hong Kong, China & Bellingham, WA, United States)
This company is focused on helping students acquire core literacy and numeracy skills through a structured curriculum, active learning pedagogy and user experience-focused design.
CCI (New York, United States)
This company is developing structured and sequential instructional programs, in addition to a platform seeking to enable non-coders to develop engaging learning content in any language or subject area.
Chimple (Bangalore, India)
This company is developing a learning platform aimed at enabling children to learn reading, writing and mathematics on a tablet through more than 60 explorative games and 70 different stories.
Education Apps for All (Lynchburg, United States)
This company is developing an app that aims to systematically teach the building blocks of reading while encouraging oral language development and reading comprehension.
Kitkit School (Berkeley, United States)
This company is developing a learning program with a game-based core and flexible learning architecture aimed at helping children independently learn, irrespective of their knowledge, skill, and environment.
Leap to Know (Pretoria, South Africa)
This company is developing an app rich with culturally relevant stories that help to build learning foundations for children at different education levels.
Learn Leap Fly (Ottawa, Canada)
This company is using social software and story-based learning to deliver a culture and language-adaptable learning platform for reading, writing, and arithmetic.
LiteracyApp.org (Kristiansand, Norway)
This company is using exponential technologies like face recognition and machine learning to build an artificial intelligence (AI) tutor able to adapt itself to different children.
onebillion (UK/Malawi/Tanzania)
This company is merging numeracy content with new literacy material to offer directed learning and creative activities alongside continuous monitoring to respond to different children’s needs.
RoboTutor (Pittsburgh, United States)
This company is leveraging Carnegie Mellon’s research in reading and math tutors, speech recognition and synthesis, machine learning, educational data mining, cognitive psychology, and human-computer interaction.
The School of Games (San Francisco, United States)
This company is creating a series of games to teach reading, writing, numeracy and speaking skills that adapt to different learning styles.
Read more about other XPRIZE competitions on Tech.Co