Leonore: AI-powered learning platform

Leonore is designed to promote gender-inclusive education, lifelong learning, and equality of opportunity.

The concept of Leonore emerges from the idea of a library for all learning activities. It provides personalized recommendations and serves as a learning compass. The model consists of three major components: 

Figure: Leonore's model is comprised of skills, which are part of the user's interests, which are part of all available topics

By creating a responsive digital environment we empower our users to discover new interests and exchange their experience. 

Consequently, girls and women will have access to quality educational content, become more aware of their learning opportunities, become more objective about their skills, and increase their decision-making ability.

Although the world is moving towards gender equality in countries affected by conflicts, girls and women of all ages face considerable barriers. For instance, 89 percent of girls complete primary education, and only 77 percent complete lower secondary education. In low-income countries, girls are more likely to drop out of school than boys due to factors such as poverty, insecure learning environments, the high cost of education, and long distances from education institutions. We solve this by providing a software platform that enables everybody to participate in learning activities by exchanging thoughts and gaining experiences independent of gender, social background, and any other discriminating factor. 

Self-awareness and lifelong-learning attitude are two imminent soft skills that should be reinforced by a clear and coherent overview of the user’s interests and related potential skills. In most educational systems this does not happen though.

Users first answer a questionnaire or import profiles from external sources, such as their school or LinkedIn. From this, Leonore derives topics the user has interacted with, from which the user selects the ones that she is interested in. 

Given these interests, we recommend activities that either deepen or broaden the user's interests and thus her knowledge in the respective field. Activities are assigned to certain topics but also activity types, such as training, research, project, job, and more. 

Selecting an activity to participate in means doing the training, participating in the research project, etc. In contrast to platforms that specialize in a certain activity type, we focus on the actual content. Hence, we bring everybody interested in a topic in the same space and thereby remove stereotypes such as that certain genders or people from certain backgrounds would not interact with a certain activity type. Besides, by interacting with other users on the respective topics, users learn about different perspectives, which can trigger new questions to explore new sides of common beliefs.

Figure: Leonore guides the user from a diffuse world of topics towards becoming aware of personal interests and building a skill stack

In the first instance, Leonore serves individuals who do not have access to school learning materials due to poverty, insecure environment, or high education costs. People who are curious to know what their current interests and skill profile looks like from an objective perspective, and which opportunities are available to them for further development. We enable people to start with their interests instead of fixed roles that society has decided for them.

In the further course of the project, we are going to make Leonore more independent of age and thus create a solution that makes it possible to support children individually from an early age, providing adults with future-oriented, relevant skills during their career and to inspire seniors even at an advanced age for new knowledge and to motivate them to share/pass on their skills. 

Leonore addresses individual needs for education, and better well-being by providing a clear overview of actionable activities for projects that fit the person's interests and by planning the person’s individual skill combination. Also, through various types of recommendations and discovering new subject areas we connect interdisciplinary knowledge and therefore foster an entrepreneurial mindset.

Figure: Exemplary skill combination graph, Source: https://forge.medium.com/how-to-become-the-best-in-the-world-at-something-f1b658f93428

We inspire young women, non-binary and transgender to become change-makers in their communities by providing them with high-quality educational content and a personal skill combination overview that helps them to discover themselves and to connect to like-minded users independent of discriminating factors. Because they are from the local community, they are accepted and supported in their efforts and can motivate other women to join the platform and gain its benefits. They receive peer support and recognition through discussions on the platform, which incentivizes them to continue, adopt a life-long learning mentality, and bring in other learners in their community.

Leonore is solving the biggest yet overlooked opportunity in education – building knowledge primarily based on individual interests and skills, independently of gender, age, and social aspects. 

For the first time, a platform is offered to people from all social backgrounds, which breaks down all barriers of personal development and invites people to adopt the mentality of lifelong learners, by guiding their learning experience beyond traditional educational institutions. This enables everyone to thrive in what she wants compared to being pushed into certain topics or activity types based on gender, age, and social background. Leonore gets rid of this artificial segregation.

Existing approaches, such as vocational training centers and adult education centers, are on the one hand resource-intensive (and therefore do not scale up) and on the other hand inadequate to support the exploration of new interests. Leonore's platform approach solves both of these problems.

Leonore consolidates what is already there – the interest in personal development and opportunities to acquire new knowledge – into one platform. Besides, it is easily scalable while still giving highly personalized recommendations.

First and foremost, Leonore is a software platform. Technically, it consists of two core components.

Firstly, our sophisticated database model knows about how different topics are related to each other, meaning how much they overlap. For instance, the topics storytelling and artificial intelligence relate less to each other than machine learning and artificial intelligence. With this knowledge, we can show the user what we call a skill combination graph that for the first time visualizes a user’s different interests, how they relate to each other, and how to improve a specific skill level.

Secondly, the database model is the basis for the other core component, which is a smart recommender system. It recommends – based on these interests – activities to the user that have high overlap in what the user is interested in. This is possible because activities are tagged with the topics.

Initially, the platform learns about the user’s interests by asking her about which topics she is interested in. In the onboarding process, this is done by connecting other platforms, such as skills from LinkedIn, courses from schools, or simply by filling out a questionnaire.

Graph-based database models as well as fine-grained recommender systems are already in use as of today. In our team, we have taken courses about both of these crucial technologies and used them in projects to the extent that we are accustomed to how to develop Leonore technically.

For our graph-based approach, we are using our special GVAN-stack: 

• GraphQL as the query-language for our API
• Vue for building the user-interface
• Apollo as GraphQL-client
• Neo4j for the underlying graph database 

For the recommender system, we are using a content-based filtering approach with a soft clustering method. Our collaborative model can give cross-domain recommendations. Examples for existing platforms that work with massive data are StackExchange, such as Stack Overflow, and Reddit.

In the same way, we have experimented with the relationship of user’s interests that we collected via various APIs from other platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and the course platform of the Technical University of Munich. This makes us confident that we can collect and derive interests from various platforms by letting the user connect profiles of those during the quick onboarding process. Of course, a simple questionnaire, which the user can fill out instead or in addition to connecting any platform, is straightforward.

Research and observations indicate that education is essential for all, regardless of gender. While improving social equality, education is associated with higher income levels, better health, higher self-esteem, greater decision-making, and many other positive outcomes throughout life. 

The empowerment of women and girls is at the heart of our theory of change. We anticipate educated and self-aware girls and young women to become agents of change in their communities, demonstrating an example of following their interests and talents. We want them to move from circumscribed domestic roles to become students and entrepreneurs. 

Girls and young women are the very core of our market. Rather than providing services that depend on labor-intensive and costly support systems, we create digital platforms for mutually beneficial partnerships between young women and educational content providers. 

In the long-term Leonore yields an array of multidimensional impacts – from shifting mindsets and attitudes about education to fostering skills, resilience, network, and curiosity. We want to empower women’s opportunities, and status as community change-makers and replace the classic definition of promotion of gifted people with promotion of skills and promotion of interests.

Leonore is currently in the prototype stage and therefore does not have any users yet.

1-year perspective: from our exploratory interviews with students from the Technical University of Munich, 80 percent have expressed a willingness to use interest-based recommender systems for further education. Based on this sample, we can predict that in case of successful implementation of our solution at the Technical University of Munich, we could expect more than 34 000 users. At the same time, rolling out the solution in a university setting enables us to attract content providers easily.

5-year perspective: following our vision, Leonore is devoted to serving the following groups of individuals: 

• Early school leavers and people with limited education, approx. 10.2 percent of people aged 18-24 in the EU

• Young people in rural areas of Europe, facing the risk of poverty or social exclusion, approx. 25 percent of the population of the EU

• Seniors looking for new knowledge and motivation to share/pass on their skills - 25 percent of the European population by 2030

• People who have already completed their school education and now wish to continue their education in certain areas

• People who are currently undergoing training and are looking for additional experience

• People who are simply curious to know what their current interests and skill profile looks like from an objective perspective and what opportunities are available to them for further training and to get to know new interests

Goal 1: Becoming the library of the future for all learning activities within Europe and beyond. 

To become a central point of contact where all kinds of learning offers are collected and tagged with subject areas, which are currently hidden online and offline and difficult to access. As Leonore is going to be offered in English, it will require minimum adjustments for usage internationally, while partnerships with international content providers will ensure language accessibility of the content. 

Goal 2: Promoting the long-term motivation to learn and exchanging interdisciplinary knowledge across human beings without any kind of discrimination.

Leonore gives its users the unique opportunity to discover and develop their interests and skills free from social prejudice.

1) Partnering with organizations to craft educational recommendation strategies for different target groups: We are excited to meet organizations working on delivering more accessible and scalable education programs, adjusted to different target groups. 

2) Expansion: Our solution has the potential to scale massively across Germany and beyond, and it would be great to explore this opportunity through Solve. However, we need to extend our workforce on the software development side to join our team to be able to respond to the needs of the necessary high growth rate.

• Expand the team to cover additional tasks related to software development, partnership management, and business development. 

• Build research and educational partnership network through participating in challenges like MIT Solve. 

• Get funding through challenges and competitions to cover expenses. 

Currently, we are 3 students who are working part-time on the solution. 

Our team is united by the fact that we all have had experience with interdisciplinary projects alongside our traditional school and university careers. From early on we had opportunities to pursue our diverse interests in addition to the actual school education.  

Our team consists of 3 members from different cultural and educational backgrounds: 

• Simon Zachau, 24, student (pursuing MSc. Computer Science + Honours Degree at the Center for Digital Technology and Management), tasks: ideation, software development.
• Thomas Bauer, 23, student (pursuing MSc. Management & Technology), tasks: business planning, software development.
• Maria Khomich, 28, student (B.A. Philology, pursuing BSc. Management & Technology), tasks: user research, community management. 

We have already successfully participated as a team in several hackathons and innovation competitions and our current formation covers all skills we need to drive the vision and to implement prototypes of Leonore. 

We have gained experience in leading teams through previous founding projects, working in international and multicultural projects, and different roles and industries. All of us have collected experience with other founding projects, with various entrepreneurship centers in Munich, and with all challenges related to founding a social entrepreneurship venture.

Leonore is currently considering three groups of partners as its content providers and for community building: 

• Technical University Munich (TUM) – for educational (in terms of project studies and interdisciplinary projects) and research partnership (monitoring and evaluation) – since all three of us are affiliated with it. 

• UnternehmerTUM GmbH and Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) – for entrepreneurial education and tech community building and support, including start-up consulting, innovative network, and access to subsidies. 

• Initiatives working on skill development, such as World Skills International, and ReDI school for digital integration.

Beyond the partnerships for content provision, we are planning to partner with TUM for rolling out the first version of Leonore among students to attract further content providers and to improve Leonore before further rollout.

We provide the value to the population we serve through intelligent software, key activities of which are recommendations of learning activities along with related materials and digital community network building. Our key customers are business partners (content providers, recruiting agencies, challenge organizers), students and learners, and educators (teachers, professors, community activists).  

Our cost structure consists of main software development, user research & marketing, community & partnership management. The main channels for us: NGOs, Universities, Schools, women empowerment initiatives. The value which we propose to our customers is in easily accessible software that improves collaboration, connects to others who have similar interests across geographical, social, and other boundaries, creation of a life-long learning culture and the possibility to plan your personal skill combination to find what you want to do in life. 

We anticipate to generate our revenues through using skill-pool subscription model, per post pricing model, private and corporate fundings, for example, as a part of corporate responsibility strategy, co-marketing partnerships with other educational programs.

To minimize our personnel costs, we put a strong focus on building and working with our community right from the start. For this purpose we launch innovation projects and Leonore task forces as activities on the platform for which users can register. This will build a sense of community and collaboration within the Leonore community, enabling users to develop new skills. Moderation tasks can also be carried out by the community in this way, similar to how groups work on social media platforms. 

To cover further costs, we plan to offer a small amount of sponsored activities (e.g. courses marked as "sponsored", paid courses of external providers, which are offered through affiliate mechanisms or similar). Further, we could acquire project sponsors whose logos could be displayed on our homepage and build corporate partnerships for example, as a part of corporate responsibility strategy

Disadvantaged students, especially ones who are coming from a low-income background, shall always have free access upon a simple proof mechanism. Potential costs can also be charged indirectly, such as that the university or school covers the costs for all their students.

We are applying to Solve because of the following reasons: 

• We would greatly benefit from assistance with our scale and revenue models.

• We see Solve as an opportunity to validate the impact that we aim to achieve.

• We want to become a part of the Solve network and meet people and organizations working on EdTech issues and social entrepreneurship projects.

We consider funding and revenue model partnerships important for us from the strategic perspective to share skills and other resources in the pursuit of common goals. In this regard funding and financial support by local/regional agencies and governments and private companies can be considered as part of their corporate social responsibility. 

For marketing and media, the main partnership areas are ones that can help us to find partners for Leonore as efficiently as possible, especially content providers, such as various associations, initiatives, international NGOs, universities, schools, large companies, and community activists.   

Further, we consider partnerships in the area of monitoring and evaluation with educational and behavioral research organizations to craft better recommendation strategies for different target groups, as well as to conduct research projects assessing girls’ behavior and learning motivation as a result of using Leonore.

We would like to partner with the following types of organizations: 

• Content providers

  • Associations

  • Universities

  • Schools

  • Existing companies (e.g. Coursera, Udemy, Codecademy, LinkedIn Learning, ...) 

• Educational and behavioral research organizations to craft recommendation strategies for different target groups, as well as to conduct a research project assessing girls’ behavior and learning motivation as a result of using Leonore.

We inspire young women, non-binary and transgender to become change-makers in their communities by providing them with high-quality educational content and a personal skill combination overview that helps them to discover themselves and to connect to like-minded users independent of discriminating factors. Most ground-work has already been started and there exist tons of initiatives. However, only with Leonore they can scale up and expand their efforts. Leonore’s software platform approach that is based on an intelligent recommender and a sophisticated graph-based network makes it possible to offer activities across existing boundaries.

Because our target group is from local communities, it is accepted and supported in its efforts and can motivate other women to join the platform and gain its benefits. They receive peer support and recognition through discussions on the platform, which incentivizes them to continue, adopt a life-long learning mentality, and bring in other learners in their community.

With the Innovation for Women Prize, we want to finance our growth, provide Leonore with its financial cushion to secure short-term liquidity for unexpected expenses in the future, hire additional staff to support us in the technical development of Leonore, develop a future-proof branding for Leonore and implement marketing initiatives for Leonore.

Leonore’s recommendations are solely based on interests and skills - which creates equal opportunities for everyone. As all too often certain subject areas are viewed in a gender-specific way, which reduces the enthusiasm of some people for potentially interesting areas. In the long term, those people may not have been happy by society pushing them into a direction that is not aligned to their true interests. 

Leonore’s stimulating and responsive environment is created for learners to avoid the influence of any implicit stereotypes in the context of education, for example in STEM, and give them a playground to develop their interests through self-education, but also through collaboration. Vulnerable girls and women will find themselves in a community of other women who might share their love of science and technology. They can find inspiration and support from them and other platform users, independent of gender, and instead dependent on the personal potential impact.

Through careful choice of content providers, we are aiming to include diverse high-quality content on various topics, including STEM. Due to our team’s strong affiliation with technology topics and our network of tech entrepreneurs in one of Germany's biggest tech hubs, we believe it is possible to scale and share knowledge among communities.

With the GM Prize on Learning for Girls and Women, we want to provide Leonore with its financial cushion to secure short-term liquidity for unexpected expenses in the future, and hire additional staff to support us in the technical development of Leonore.

Leonore addresses individual needs for education, and better well-being by providing a clear overview of actionable activities for projects that fit the person's interests and by planning the person’s individual skill combination.

Through various types of recommendations and discovering new subject areas, we are not only aiming to upskill user’s existing skills but to create an interdisciplinary knowledge in the intersection of technology, education, arts, and science and thus promote entrepreneurial thinking. 

At the moment we are based in Munich, however, we are already planning to expand in Europe as written above. As Leonore is a software platform that is meant to be scaled from the beginning, there is no geographic boundary. The ability to use the platform around the globe will expand users' horizons and possibilities. For us, making the platform international is one of the main steps towards an accessible and multifaceted education for all.

With the Gulbenkian Award for Adult Literacy, we want to finance our growth, provide Leonore with its financial cushion to secure short-term liquidity for unexpected expenses in the future, hire additional staff to support us in the technical development of Leonore, develop a future-proof branding for Leonore and implement marketing initiatives for Leonore.

The technology behind Leonore is based on massive data that is always related to both the content and the users. Every activity (content) is of a specific activity type and labeled with a limited number of topics. Users are interested in a selection of topics and possess an individual skill level in each topic that they are interested in. Leonore computes activity recommendations based on other users' experiences with the activities. Moreover, Leonore understands the relationship between different topics. For instance, the topics storytelling and artificial intelligence relate less to each other than machine learning and artificial intelligence. With this knowledge, we can show the user what we call a personal skill combination graph that for the first time visualizes a user’s different interests, how they relate to each other, and how to improve a specific skill. This enables an objective view of the user's interests to the extent that the user can optimize her skill combination with Leonore's guidance.

With the AI for Humanity Prize, we want to finance our growth, provide Leonore with its financial cushion to secure short-term liquidity for unexpected expenses in the future, hire additional staff to support us in the technical development of Leonore, develop a future-proof branding for Leonore and implement marketing initiatives for Leonore.

The global education technology market is expected to reach USD 341B by 2025. It is assumed that the speed of digitization in education will bypass healthcare, primarily due to the growth of opportunities over the past 10 years, and will be fuelled by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence. 

At the same time, megatrends affecting our society, such as population aging, lifelong learning, globalization, and gender shift are urging existing systems to become more agile, efficient, transparent, and innovative. The demand for the system change and response to the global challenges is dictated by the fact that 57 million primary age children remain out of school, 617 million youth worldwide lack basic math and literacy skills, and 25% of the European population by 2030 will be composed of seniors, who might need retraining due to automatization. 

By exploring the advantages of technology as well as concepts from bygone eras Leonore created a knowledge space for everyone. Leonore utilizes already existing content and serves as a smart educational ecosystem providing individuals with personal development and opportunities to acquire new knowledge, companies with talent access, access to idea pools, and the international community. Leonore is easily scalable while still offering highly personalized recommendations.

With the Future Planet Capital Prize, we want to finance our growth, provide Leonore with its financial cushion to secure short-term liquidity for unexpected expenses in the future, hire additional staff to support us in the technical development of Leonore, develop a future-proof branding for Leonore and implement marketing initiatives for Leonore.