TOYZSTEAM Learn Today Earn Tomorrow The Evolution with AI, eSports, and Realtime 3D

In 2021 we identified that there is a need to upskill Gen Z for new jobs in technical and creative industries as the Baby Boomer population leaves the workforce. Microsoft estimates there will be a global need for over 149 million tech jobs in the next 5 years. Our CMU NSF I-Corps research evaluated how increasing diversity can be a solution. African Americans and Hispanics are 44% (~23 M) of K12 students. African Americans and Hispanics comprise approximately 15% of the technology workforce.  In a city like Pittsburgh, for example, this has disturbing economic effects. The median income of African Americans, for example, is $32,000, and on average their education performance on state Math and English tests is 30-40 points behind whites. Entry-level $20/HR boost income to $43,206. The loss in manufacturing especially steel has severely depressed income and opportunities for African Americans and has depressed real estate which is how education funding is determined. Pittsburgh is not an anomaly you can find similar statistics across the country which has led to civil unrest and movements like Black Lives Matter. In the gaming industry, while Black and Hispanics are more likely to play video games they represent 15% of the workforce. AI however presents an emerging opportunity with Black and Hispanics constituting 30% of the US workforce. This is double the rate in Tech and video games respectively but still below the overall workforce population percentage. In our research with the NSF, a common refrain we found is "You can't be what you can't see". This has become a self-fulfilling prophecy due to education inequity and a lack of cultural relevance in the context of these technologies to the lives of their individuals and examples of successful career journeys from people who look similar. While the journey of Damola and Wole Idowu as multi-generational black engineers who both got into select universities like Syracuse and Carnegie Mellon respectively at the age of 15 can inspire students, Blacks in engineering however are a rarity who represent 4% of the US engineering workforce. 

We developed a concept called Superhero Rap to inspire STEAM careers. Superhero Rap involves students envisioning their ideal selves and the world they want to live in through STEAM superpowers. Students learn growth intelligence and problem-solving skills through creating their ideal world. Our solution is an immersive 3D videogame that helps students create these worlds while teaching them marketable technology skills such as 3D modeling, audio editing, and entrepreneurship. Using our Superhero Rap Concept students tell their biographical story and STEAM superhero creative story in our real-time 3D video game. They record their story in immersive audio. Students use our app to design and model their superhero characters and record their STEAM origin stories, introducing students to creative digital tools in our game. This user-generated content is packaged as a portfolio that is then used to supplement college and employment applications and is showcased in a creator economy marketplace TOYZSTORE that leverages Microsoft and Epic Games stores introducing students to online business technologies and strategies and the economic incentives of STEM fields.

Since our solution became a finalist for antiracist technology we have obtained funding and executed several pilots which has led to additional features and the gaining of new insights. We were able to Upskill and provide tangible pathways and resources to diverse students enhanced by AI to support them in college or the workforce.  Students get Experiential and Practical Knowledge for College Students with AI to match to Mentors and College Alumni and gamified workforce simulations. Students Resumes are gamified as a trading card that updates in real-time as you earn credentials and badges. 

To do so we have been able to add artificial intelligence and data science that capture socioeconomic data and match resources and alumni of colleges to be able to guide students on education and career pathways. We have added an enriched curriculum which has been developed with partners like Carnegie Mellon and Howard that has been successful in teaching real-time 3D skills to students of HBCUs and obtained entry into select Master of Game Design programs. We have utilized esports and the knowledge that Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to play video games to build community and leverage resources to provide the technology necessary to learn real-time 3D skills. We have leveraged Microsoft Azure and Playfab to create a user-generated marketplace to serve to highlight the portfolios of students for college admission and employment. We have been able to join accelerators like AlphaLab where we grew users of our application from 100 to over 10000 and grew revenue to over $130,000 since our last application to SOLVE and participation in the Unbundling Policing Incubator. We have grown relationships with 15 colleges, and industry partners like Epic Games, Unity Technologies, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, to build our product and develop a curriculum to bring equity into the future of work in areas of real-time 3D and AI.  We have developed a mentor-matching system of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Superheroes using Alumni and college students. 

Our solution serves diverse and disadvantaged students in the United States. We focus on areas where the education gap creates a more severe economic drag than any recent economic depression. If, for instance, the US improved child math and science scores to just the average OECD scores, it would present 2.5 trillion dollars’ worth of present-value growth. And if racial and socioeconomic score gaps in the US is completely bridged, it would present a 5.3 trillion dollar present-value improvement. 

Our Superhero Rap concept leverages storytelling, hip-hop culture, and the unique journey of multigenerational Black Engineers who both began college at elite Universities at 15 attending Syracuse and Carnegie Mellon University, respectively. Father Damola is also an alum of Howard University currently based at Carnegie Mellon University who designed a high-quality curriculum collaborating with faculty of both Howard University and Carnegie Mellon. Its culturally relevant and meets the most discerning standards in education with industry feedback from companies like Amazon, Unity Technologies, and Epic Games.

Informally we utilize Superhero Rap to introduce students to STEAM concepts and teach problem-solving and growth intelligence in a process that combines STEM + Art + Maker + Entrepreneurship. 

We provide culturally relevant STEAM education. Students are trained to make their own toys, making STEAM skill-building fun, and engaging. They’re empowered to be TOYZMAKERS. In the curriculum, students are directed to invent creative characters and designs within a hip-hop-infused universe. They can create comic books, games, 3D models, and music. Our curriculum uses hip-hop culture, music, game design, comic books, coding, and 3D design and modeling. 

Superhero Rap is based on Idealism, which is the student’s ideal world and vision of their best self. The villain is their obstacle. Their superpowers are based on using STEM concepts to overcome their obstacles. An example of Superhero Rap is an anti-bullying song by co-founder Damola created with a multi-racial cast of students at the music department at CMU called Stop The Bullying. https://music.apple.com/us/alb... The song details our unique differences but our shared humanity and that by appreciation we can all live in a better world. 

Working with these and other very select colleges democratizes high-quality education to underserved communities while simultaneously ensuring they meet the standards of performance required by industry and select college admission. This approach expands the workforce. Our founder's background story inspires underserved populations to believe a possible career can be tangible with a visual representation of successful people who look like them. Students can create their own path based on best practices. Students are also mentored. We have been able to get Young Black women into master's and Ph.D. programs at schools like USC, CMU, and U Chicago from HBCUs, and undergraduate programs like the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech.

Employers value experience even when a person does not have a degree related to the job. The project-centered model captures employers’ willingness to hire applicants based on demonstrable experience over a degree. Students can become qualified to work in STEAM fields. 

We are led by multi-generational Black Engineers who both got to select universities like Syracuse and Carnegie Mellon respectively at 15. 

We are advised and have partnered with distinguished scholars from some of the most prestigious universities in the world and corporate leaders in education.

Damola Idowu- CEO and co-founder of Toyz Electronics

Wole Idowu- CTO co-founder of Toyz Electronics

Drew Davidson, PhD - Advisor

Nikolas Martelaro, PhD- Research Partner and Professor Carnegie Mellon University 

Brett Ashley Crawford, Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University - Consultant

Toniesha Taylor, Ph.D. Texas Southern University Partner 

Symone Campbell, PhD Howard University Partner

Amy Yeboah Quarkume, Ph. D Howard University Partner

Todd Shurn, PhD Howard University Research Partner and Collaborator

Ganesh Mani, Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business Masters of Data Science Program PhD Research Partner and Collaborator 

Sean Branagan, Syracuse University Newhouse School of Communications  Advisor 

Steve Issacs, Epic Games  Collaborator 

Ernesto Escobar, Duke University Pratt School of Engineering Partner

Jason Perry Howard University PhD  Research Partner and Professor 

Deborah Johnson Howard  University Research Partner and Collaborator 

Kevin Deitrick Carnegie Mellon University Masters of Data Science Program Executive Director 

Jacoby Dubose, Ph.D. Howard University Partner

Christopher Goranson, PhD Carnegie Mellon University Capstone Partner 

Rockell A Brown Burton PhD Syracuse University Partner

Here is a link to letters of support

https://drive.google.com/file/...

We currently have tested our curriculum with 5000+ Students in Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Maryland, DC, and Virginia. Since 2020 We have been BNY Mellon Upprize Social Innovation Challenge semifinalists and have conducted CMU-NSF I-Corps research. We launched Dah-Varsity in the Google Play Store in May 2021. We have built several partnerships. Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute is providing our course on its website as an available solution for its manufacturing members and their employees. Community College of Allegheny County is offering our course TOYZSTEAM virtually to their students with a workforce focus and soft skills development that includes volunteerism to teach middle school and high school students. We've been developing TOYZSTEAM with CMU and have pilot projects with BGCWPA, Girls Scouts, and public schools. Conversations are ongoing with The State of Pennsylvania specifically for the implementation of our program for education and workforce development. 

Our customers and partners include:

Texas Southern University where we are developing a multifaceted partnership that spans events and collaborations with institutions like NASA, working and submitting research proposals to the NSF together,

The City of Pittsburgh Rec to Tech where we informally deliver STEAM education using our curriculum and Dah-Varsity video game on City of Pittsburgh Windows computers.

Tepper Schools of Business CMU we are based full-time at the Swartz Center of Entrepreneurship and collaborates with several departments including the Master of Data Science where we have a capstone on AI inputs for our LLM that will use AI to match students to mentors and resources to continuing their STEAM education and career journey based on their expressed interest during gameplay of our Dah-Varsity game.

Heinz Endowment which is providing financial support for our Superhero Rap concept and the ability to use user-generated content and the creators' economy and facets of what we developed at Syracuse University to empower economic mobility and better education pathways for creative students in STEAM.

Howard University is collaborating with us in several facets from eSports to curriculum development in partnership with Carnegie Mellon to teaching classes and developing research from our findings using software from companies like Epic Games. We are also collaborating on AI and data science and NSF proposals together.

Penn State University New Kensington utilizes our product to train potential students in the future of advanced manufacturing and entrepreneurship.

The University of Pittsburgh implemented our product in an area with a median income of ~$20,000 utilizing training we provide for their students.

The University of Chicago hires us to upskill diverse students in creative and technical skills for their early workforce experience.

Hyundai Motors provides financial support and interviews with senior executives to leverage as content in our platform, so students see visual representation in the industry.

Epic Games provides connections, resources, and opportunities to leverage their Fortnite economy to our diverse students. They connected us to partners like Duke University who will be collaborating on events to expose diverse candidates to the benefits of careers in real-time 3D and pathways through education.

Syracuse University where we use creative technologies and entrepreneurship to open pathways for diverse students to continue education at the institution or use entrepreneurship principles to empower their economic mobility with their creative talents. This program is in the Newhouse School of Communication. We are also working with students from the YMCA of Central New York in the Future Leaders program at the Whitman School to teach creators skills and packaging of their user-generated content to be a college application supplement. We also work with the engineering school to upskill diverse students in early workforce experiences.

The Education Justice Institute at MIT obtained letters of commitment from both the Police Chief of Cambridge and the District Attorney of Middlesex County to implement our solution to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the communities they serve and provide a culturally relevant STEAM curriculum for students in Cambridge and have MIT students better engage with their communities.

Unity Technologies provided resources and support to the collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and Howard University to build a videogame curriculum and a pathway to an accelerated Master’s Program between Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center and the School of Engineering and Communications at Howard University. 

Manchester Academic Charter School (MACS) is a Middle School in Pittsburgh, PA which is partnering with us to develop approaches to build better pathways to higher education and workforce for diverse and disadvantaged students by engaging middle school students and their parents. 

PPG Paints which are providing financial support to run a pilot program at MACS where 6 Carnegie Mellon University alumni are working with Students at the Middle School to provide our curriculum and training in developing videogame assets that will be playable. They are also providing mentorship and took the students on a field trip to the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. We are also bringing the CMU Plus math enrichment program to provide extra support to the students.

We are a father and son Black duo of creatives, engineers, and entrepreneurs. The issue of racial injustice and lack of access to tech jobs hits home personally. Co-Founder Wole Idowu was one of 5 African Americans who graduated out of his ~300-person class for electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon in 2017. Co-founder Damola Idowu, Wole's dad has had to "Hack" the system to get his son opportunities, and other children aren't as fortunate. Joining Solve will provide access to like-minded problem solvers who can collaborate, and it provides access to resources to address the societal challenges we are addressing. By joining Solve we can share our best practices that have worked in multiple generations and made an impact already with little funding or resources. Martin Luther King said it's a cruel joke to ask a man without boots to pull himself up by the bootstrap. Solve can provide us with critical boots to get on the ground and make an impact on the challenges we are addressing. Technical support and financial support are critical for us. Joining Solve will help in both areas. Since becoming finalists for Antiracist tech and participating in the SOLVE Incubator for Unbundling Policing we have made a tremendous impact with our solution. In the Incubator MIT TEJI was able to obtain letters of Intent from the police chief of Cambridge and also the District Attorney of Middlesex County in Massachusetts. We have raised over $321,000 in venture funding, over $50000 in grant funding, and over $100000 in sales from 10 customers including colleges like Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Penn State, Texas Southern, University of Chicago, the city of Pittsburgh, Hyundai, PPG paints. We have built partnerships with colleges like ASU, and Fleming who have done capstone projects to advance our technology solution. We have developed new technologies for our solution like Artificial Intelligence and worked with the Master of Data Science program at Carnegie Mellon on a capstone project. Damola has spoken to Hala Hanna several times and she has suggested that an application be submitted again to better leverage the Solve community and build upon the great work and success we have achieved. We now want deep engagement with solvers to truly scale our validated solution to the heights it can achieve with the resources and community of SOLVE and additionally be able to build new insights and development to the solution from our peers. 

Our innovation is mixing superhero and rap culture together to inspire students for STEAM. It combines science fiction with urban culture and storytelling that helps students think beyond their environment. This allows them to see themselves as STEAM superheroes. Our solution has 4 components; Inspire, Learn, Create, Sell. Our CMU-NSF I-Corps findings suggest that to engage more underrepresented students in STEAM you need a product that will Inspire students with visual representation.  Students need a culturally relevant curriculum to Learn. They need access to tools to Create. Given a choice of food security or STEAM education food comes first so a marketplace to Sell will fund STEAM learning. While many individual tools allow students to create virtual designs, there are no systems that integrate all the above components. Additionally, many of these tools exist only as desktop applications. This is a challenge for our specific set of students who may not have access to great computers, but who do have smartphones. We are building a mobile application to develop the talent of diverse and disadvantaged students especially African Americans towards employment and entrepreneurship in STEAM-related industries. We are building a mobile application that extends our pre-existing mobile game Dah-Varsity and online learning management system, TOYZSTEAM, to integrate audio production and character creation tools and an e-commerce marketplace for diverse students to sell their creative works. A fully mobile superhero rap creative platform and e-commerce marketplace can help scale our innovation to many more students. We have since evolved our innovation to include an AI model that captures information from gameplay to determine interest in further education in STEAM learning and match students with opportunities and resources and alumni communities of colleges that provide pathways to their desired field of study. We have turned user-generated content architecture of games like Minecraft and developed our own experience leveraging hip-hop and storytelling and the results are portfolios that have gotten young black women into colleges like Michigan, Georgia Tech, USC, CMU, and others. We have validated that students who have been assumed to not be capable could be exceptional in only 2 years of training with our platform, curriculum, and support community.  We are combining AI, with a learning management system that leverages eSports and earning badges on STEAM disciplines thru gameplay in a Realtime 3D video game and teaching students’ complex topics through project-based learning centered around user-generated content and hip-hop storytelling to amplify the individual voices within geographic areas in a dataset. For example, The Hill District in Pittsburgh has a median income of $20K but there are students we worked with University of Pittsburgh to upskill who told fascinating stories and created 3D avatars and recorded audio that are playable in our Dah-Varsity videogame. Another innovation is using eSports to build interscholastic competition like the NCAA and foster collaborative scholarship and create workforce pipelines and economic mobility for underserved populations. Additionally, we pair this with near-peer mentorship and University alumni. 

Since we were finalists for antiracist technology, we have been able to obtain results that validate our solution will have an impact on the problem we are solving. Students have gotten admission into select colleges with scholarships, and universities have gained better insights into the challenges facing the recruitment of diverse candidates. 

We have even built a product for this approach with a Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) expert. https://toyzsteam.com/dei/  Students work in inclusive groups and use creative storytelling based on this concept to learn each other's stories and become a super team for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Our work thus far has been heavily focused on building relationships with the community to deliver our culturally relevant and responsive curriculum. CEO Damola Idowu has a background of over 29 years of amplifying voices and issues affecting the community and developing solutions based on responsive engagement. Our approach has been to listen, outreach, collaborate, and then take best practices and build upon them. We have worked with organizations like Remake Learning which have thousands of educators in their network. We have also worked with foundations focused on challenges facing the community to engage and deliver customizable and flexible solutions to them and their partners. 

We provide an affordable, revenue-generating, Ed-Tech, and e-commerce platform to increase the diverse talent pool for computer-related careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) Industries. Students are trained to make their own toys, making STEAM skill-building fun, and engaging. They’re empowered to be TOYZMAKERS. In the curriculum, students are directed to invent creative characters and designs within a hip-hop-infused universe. They can create comic books, games, 3D models, and music using open-source and free tools that are widely adopted in STEAM jobs. Their created characters are made to showcase each child’s personal obstacles and how he, she, or they overcame them. The projects are designed with college and job applications in mind; students write about their specific hardships, and how their scholastic and entrepreneurial efforts help them overcome their hardships. The projects and the writings that these students create are designed to shine on college and job applications. Recruiters seek people who find creative ways to overcome their hardships. For college-age students, the program functions like an internship. It prepares non-technical students for entry-level positions with a focus on career development, further training, and growth toward more technical and leadership positions in the future. More employers value experience even when a person does not have a degree related to the job.  

We assess the impact on multiple levels: Increased awareness of STEAM careers, real-time 3D technologies & AI; increased participation in STEAM education, utilization of real-time 3D technologies & AI; completion of degree programs, employment in STEAM fields, real-time 3D and AI. 

To enhance inclusion and foster effective learning experiences, we will collect the following data from the platform (prioritizing privacy, informed consent, and transparency throughout the process):

1. User Engagement Metrics:
   • Time spent: Track how long students engage with different components (e.g., hip-hop culture, coding challenges, 3D modeling).
   • Frequency of logins: Understand how often students access the platform.
   • Completion rates: Monitor the completion of modules or challenges.
2. Learning Progress and Mastery:
   • Assessment scores: Collect data on student performance in quizzes, gamified assignments, coding exercises and design challenges.
   • Skill progression: Track students’ growth in STEAM concepts, problem-solving, and creative skills.
3. User Demographics and Representation:
   • Ethnicity and background: Gather information on students’ racial and cultural backgrounds.
   • Gender: Understand gender representation.
   • Socioeconomic status: Consider socioeconomic factors that may impact access and participation.
4. Feedback and Sentiment Analysis:
   • Surveys and feedback forms: Regularly collect feedback from students about their experiences.
   • Sentiment analysis: Use AI to analyze sentiment in student comments or forum discussions.
5. Interaction Patterns:
   • Navigation behavior: Study how students move through different sections of the platform.
   • Collaboration: Identify patterns of collaboration among students (e.g., group projects).
6. Content Preferences:
   • Popular modules: Determine which topics or activities resonate most with students.
   • Preferred media: Understand whether students engage more with music, comics, or coding challenges.
7. Accessibility Metrics:
   • Usage across devices: Analyze whether students access the platform via mobile, tablet, or desktop.
   • Screen reader compatibility: Ensure accessibility for visually impaired students.

The collected data will permit the following functional enhancements:

1.     AI-Driven Personalization:

a.     Recommendation systems: Use AI algorithms to suggest personalized content based on students’ interests and learning styles.

b.     Adaptive learning paths: Tailor learning experiences to individual needs using AI.

2.     Retention and Dropout Analysis:

a.     Identify at-risk students: Predict potential dropouts based on engagement patterns.

b.     Interventions: Use AI to recommend personalized interventions to keep students motivated.

3.     Long-Term Impact Assessment:

a.     Alumni success: Track graduates’ career paths and achievements.

b.     University enrollment: Monitor whether students transition to higher education.

We will also research the following use cases to deploy AI:

1. Personalized Learning Paths:
   • Use AI algorithms to adapt content delivery based on individual progress, learning pace, and preferences.
2. Content Generation:
   • AI can create additional rap lyrics, coding challenges, or comic book scenarios to keep content fresh and engaging.
3. Natural Language Processing (NLP):
   • Implement chatbots or virtual mentors powered by NLP to provide instant assistance and answer student queries.
4. Predictive Analytics:
   • Predict student success or challenges based on historical data, allowing timely interventions.
5. Representation Enhancement:
   • Use AI to highlight diverse role models and trailblazers within the platform, reinforcing positive representation.

Using our Superhero Rap Concept students tell their biographical story and STEAM superhero creative story in our real-time 3D video game. They record their story in immersive audio and use our 3D video game. We simulate various career pathways and integrate learning engineering so students can obtain badges and take assessments during gameplay. This data is fed to our AI model which provides students with resources, mentors, career guidance, and connections to jobs and education opportunities. While playing the game students create user-generated content that serves as their portfolio. This is featured on a marketplace where students' resumes are displayed like gamified trading cards that update with gameplay as they earn STEAM badges and gain credentials.

We will also research the following use cases to deploy AI:

1. Personalized Learning Paths:
   • Use AI algorithms to adapt content delivery based on individual progress, learning pace, and preferences.
2. Content Generation:
   • AI can create additional rap lyrics, coding challenges, or comic book scenarios to keep content fresh and engaging.
3. Natural Language Processing (NLP):
   • Implement chatbots or virtual mentors powered by NLP to provide instant assistance and answer student queries.
4. Predictive Analytics:
   • Predict student success or challenges based on historical data, allowing timely interventions.
5. Representation Enhancement:
   • Use AI to highlight diverse role models and trailblazers within the platform, reinforcing positive representation.

4 fulltime 

12 parttime employees 

5 years 

Damola and Wole Idowu are multi-generational Black co-founders. We have even built a product for diversity with a Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) https://toyzsteam.com/dei/  We built this product leveraging our concept of Superhero Rap. We will continue to work with DEI experts to ensure we are faithful to our inclusive mission. They would be key in holding us accountable. We have also been using human-centered design for our product development. This entails embedding our UI/UX team in the delivery of the instruction to students at Manchester Academic Charter School  (MACS) where they can see their unique challenges and create user experience solutions that are equitable for the diverse students we serve. Similarly, we have our programmers work in the same manner. Additionally, we are utilizing collaboration between HBCUs like Howard University and Texas Southern University and universities like Syracuse and Carnegie Mellon to develop our AI inputs with equity and a broader perspective. As a result, we have enriched the approach of AI and also ensured that the diverse needs of diverse populations are included in how we think about artificial intelligence and ensuring  AI is equitable in its utility. 

Organizations (B2B)

Currently, we sell directly to institutions that offer it for free to their students and prospects. We make money via a tiered annual subscription fee of $100-$250 per user based on enrollment size. We have an annual curriculum fee of $5000 per institution. In 2024 we anticipate by Q4 of 2024 making revenue from transaction fees from placing talent at colleges and in employment from our marketplace that will add transaction fees to our revenue model. In 2025 we anticipate having enough talent on our platform and customers so we can sell insights from our AI model

The future of work pathway for Gen Z has several companies trying to provide upskilling to K-12 students to get them college-ready. Pearson, Lego for Education, and others are not keeping up with culturally relevant curricula. They have not been successful in helping the 49% of Gen Z students who are students of color. This is especially true with the 43% of K-12 who are Black and Hispanic.   We also leverage Father Damola an alum of Howard University who used his NSF research at Carnegie Mellon University to design a high-quality curriculum at Carnegie Mellon collaborating with faculty of both Howard University and Carnegie Mellon to create cultural relevance in a curriculum that meets the most discerning standards in education with industry feedback from companies like Amazon, Unity Technologies, and Epic Games. Working with these and other very select colleges democratizes high-quality education to underserved communities while simultaneously ensuring they are meeting the standards of performance required by industry and select college admission. This approach is better than the state-to-state model competitors use, and it accelerates the expansion of the workforce. Our founder's background story is also a differentiator in the markets as it validates the inspiration for underserved populations to believe a possible career can be tangible with a visual representation of successful people who look like them. This approach helps us as we are currently creating our LLM. We understand what information to gather from users and how to prepare for the workforce. Our advantage grows as we gain more users and collect 500000 data points. Our models can improve in predicting the education and job potential of people who seem incapable. We are working with industries to identify their skills needs. This helps us simulate those skills in our game and measure potential talent. We can then guide them to education and career options. We excel in discovering and developing hidden talent while playing video games.

During AlphaLab in Spring 2023, We had paid pilots to validate our approach. Customers included Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, the City of Pittsburgh, and Hyundai. We have since grown to over 8500 users and doubled our 2022 revenue. We anticipate continuing to double our revenue for 2024. Many of our customers are continuing with pilots for 2024 and expanding to other departments. We are exploring including larger pools of students and adapting scalability. We have been able to deploy over 20 updates to our software and expand to 10 different. Platforms based on feedback from the fractured informal learning ecosystem. We have multiplied our revenue from 5X from 2022 to over 100,000 ARR adding corporations like PPG to our customers. We have found a market segment of higher learning institutions with 10 partners to generate this revenue. We have also acquired Municipal and Corporate customers like the city of Pittsburgh, Hyundai, and PPG Paints. In addition, we have been able to build partnerships with universities like MIT, Arizona State, and Howard University to develop our technical product and curriculum. For 2024 We have also added the University of Chicago as a customer and have a strong interest in universities like Duke, and the University of Pennsylvania. With these universities we would have relationships with 4 of the top 10 colleges on the US News and World Report list and with our other partners and customers we have a substantial amount of the top 30 colleges which highlights the quality of our product and capability to establish value in the marketplace in the past year. We have just launched an AI input capstone with the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business Master of Data Science program. We are also working with Howard University to ensure we are leveraging the top HBCUs (Historical Black Colleges and Universities) in our creation of data science inputs for the future of work and doing so in an equitable way. This will strengthen our AI model. We also have events planned to boost awareness and expand our users in February, March, April, June, and October with Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Howard, Syracuse, and Epic Games as partners and collaborators. This will also add esports and competitive content creation and add another industry standard and a larger pool of revenue by leveraging the Fortnite ecosystem. We have grown users to over 10000 with our Dah-varsity app with over 300000 impressions on the app stores. We have been able to build a partnership with Microsoft to scale for a pathway towards $1 Million in revenue over the next 18 months. We have been able to build our product to integrate a learning engineering tool in a 3D game with an AI model that matches students to the best career and education pathways with mentor matching and publishes their user-generated content portfolio in the form of trading cards in a marketplace that automatically updates once they gain more badges and credentials.