Draft:Laura Boccanfuso

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Laura Boccanfuso

Laura Boccanfuso is an American computer scientist, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Vän Robotics, a company that develops AI-enabled robot tutors that personalize and enhance academic learning for K-5 students [1].

In 2020, TIME Magazine named ABii, one of Vän Robotics’ smart robot tutors, in its Best Inventions of 2020 list [2]. In April 2022, Laura Boccanfuso obtained a certification in "Excellence in Service Innovation with Impact to Society" from the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP). This certification demonstrates her commitment to providing innovative, tech-driven solutions that create positive community impact [3].

Education Boccanfuso earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from George Mason University and her Master of Science in Computer Science from Bowling Green State University. In 2008, she pursued a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina, where she became particularly interested in robotics.

Following her initial passion for education, particularly teaching, she began to explore the potential of technology and AI-powered robots to improve learning for children with special needs. Boccanfuso continued to explore and build on this idea while doing a PostDoc in Social Robotics at Yale. However, it was not until last year that she launched the startup Vän Robotics [1].

Innovation: ABii, the Smart Robot Tutor Throughout her studies at the University of South Carolina, Boccanfuso discovered her passion for robotics and the growing need in the community and market for affordable technologies that could intervene in the education of children with special needs. Years of research in social robotics [4] and her academic journey encouraged her to begin developing the software to launch her start-up, Vän Robotics, in March 2016.  

Vän Robotics develops AI-enabled robot tutors to advance academic learning outcomes for K-5 students and math, reading, and SEL lessons for classroom use. Their mission, as cited on their website, is “to deliver highly personalized & engaging learning for students to build confidence and core skills mastery.” [5]

The Vän Robotics team is composed of researchers, educators, designers, and developers who are committed to ensuring that teachers and students have access to adaptive and engaging lessons [5].

Vän Robotics is known for its first product, ABii, an AI-powered robot tutor that offers students and teachers access to standard-aligned lessons and the ability to learn at a self-guided pace, helping advance students’ learning outcomes. The company uses machine learning and sensing to enable ABii to give personalized instructions to students, such as step-by-step guidance that leads them to the correct answer, explanations of why the answer they chose was correct or incorrect, and tips on how to get it right the next time. The ABii robot also monitors students’ attention levels and performance, which teachers later receive in daily reports [5]. 

Impact Laura Boccanfuso’s innovation has the potential to revolutionize student learning and the education tech market. She began her commitment to finding new and improved ways to help students learn and retain information when she learned that educational performance in the U.S. was declining [6]. As Boccanfuso emphasized during her Shark Tank pitch in 2022, students’ attention spans are shorter, and by the time they graduate from 12th grade, only 25% of them test proficient in math [7]. 

With the help of ABii, Boccanfuso has been able to help improve academic performance in K-5 classrooms around the country. A study by the South Carolina Department of Education showed that test scores saw a 19% gain in classrooms that implemented ABii into their teaching lessons compared to 8% in those that used other software. Furthermore, a 2018 efficacy study that included schools in four U.S. states found that after two to three sessions, students who were below proficient in math and reading, but received support from the ABii smart robot tutors, improved their test scores by 21% [8].

Vän Robotics is not only helping break down common learning barriers and improving students’ learning habits and performance but is ultimately setting the stage for a future where education is more data-driven, personalized, and engaging. 

References

[1] Friedman, R. (2024). A robot in every classroom. University of South Carolina. https://sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2024/05/boccanfuso_edu_robot_carolinian.php

[2] Suleman, N. (2020). A High-Tech Tutor: Van Robotics ABii. Time. https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2020/5911353/van-robotics-abii/

[3] The International Society of Service Innovation Professionals. (2022). Excellence In Service Innovation Award. ISSIP. https://issip.org/issip-excellence-in-service-innovation-award-past-recipients/

[4] Boccanfuso, L., Scarborough, S., Abramson, R., Hall, A., Wright, H., & O’Kane, J. (2017). A low-cost socially assistive robot and robot-assisted intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder: field trials and lessons learned. Autonomous Robots. 41. 10.1007/s10514-016-9554-4. 

[5] Van Robotics. (n.d.). Van Robotics: Our Story. https://www.smartrobottutor.com/

[6] Breen, R. A+ for ABii: The locally born interactive robot tutor. Columbia Metropolitan. https://columbiametro.com/article/a-for-abii/

[7] The Sharks Meet Abii from Van Robotics. Shark Tank. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL4kNQLnCTE

[8] SC Department of Education. (2021). Innovation Grant Brief Report: Breaking Barriers for Academic Achievement through Artificial Intelligence. University of South Carolina. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ed404ebbec96f17e74e96ed/t/635ad2a189ec3e15696f3947/1666896545832/Van+Robotics+South+Carolina+Department+of+Education+Innovation+Grant+-+Summary+Report+%282019-21%29+%282%29.pdf