Smartron Collaborates With University Of Southern California’s Center For Human Applied Reasoning & IoT (CHARIOT)

Q. How do you think IOT will transform the field of education?

The way we are accessing the Internet has changed drastically with the penetration of technology and what we perceive as the role of the Internet in our lives is shifting. We started on PCs and moved to smartphones, tablets and now to the Internet of Things. IOT has dramatically enhanced interactions with the things we rely on in our daily lives and has already had a considerable impact in sectors ranging from transportation, healthcare, and automobiles.

With IOT being used in the education system, connected technology will allow teachers to streamline day-to-day operations helping them focus more on teaching. It will allow them to automate tasks that usually require more time and effort when being performed manually. Connected ecosystem will also allow mentors to gather information on their students and then help them with personalized attention and care, helping them design the curriculum accordingly for future classes. The Smartron-CHARIOT program is aimed at building this particular aspect of IoT in education by analysing students’ cognition and health data and personalising learning for them.

Q. What is the significance of research on personalized education through CHARIOT and Smartron? How can this initiative contribute to a teacher's contextual understanding of students cognitive processes? What are some of the cutting edge technologies brought by this CHARIOT- Smartron initiatives?

Applying IoT as an element of the active learning and real-time feedback is the next step in the evolution of education. CHARIOT visualizes that shifting the focus of instruction to incorporate IoT will result in a paradigm shift in understanding the cognitive and emotional processes in the learning sciences and create products that are practical, accessible and scalable.

The CHARIOT-Smartron initiative will focus on building a framework for creating an effective, classroom-based system for measuring the cognitive and affective influences on learning using smartphones and a range of sensors. With our wearables powered by tronX™, we will be able to log the user’s BP, stress levels, daily activity metrics as well as ECG and heart rate and present it in the form of an easy-to-understand health dashboard on a smartphone or any Smartron device screen. The next step is to move these relevant data using cognitive modeling methods from the lab to real-world learning environments where practitioners can use the results to optimize and personalize learning for all students and administer tailored interventions at the right time. Over the course of the next 2 years, we anticipate the collaboration of CHARIOT and Smartron will result in some cutting edge, innovative solutions for education.

Q. How will the collaboration between University of Southern California's CHARIOT and Smartron affect the education industry?

As mentioned above, education industry is evolving at an alarming rate and the impact of technology in the industry is remarkable. Technology is not just making us more educated and smarter, it is also making us more efficient at the same time. Smartron has seen this opportunity in the education sector and has partnered with University of Southern California's CHARIOT to bring the best of technology in IoT to help improve the way we educate our students. With this association, we are are focussing on building a smart education system to measure cognitive and affective influences on learning patterns of students using smartphones and sensors powered by tronX™.

Q.Please mention some initiatives/ measures that Smartron or through its collaboration with CHARIOT, is planning to undertake or has taken previously to help the Indian education scenario.

Collaboration with USC CHARIOT is our first step in the field of advanced education and with this we are ready to ride this wave and create highly intelligent and customized experiences in the field of education. Based on our learnings from this program, we will build more such partnerships in the Indian education sector and bring in more tronX(™) powered IoT solutions.

Q. How can incorporating wearable devices and machine learning technologies help the Indian education sector?

India, where mobile penetration is counting to a billion people with over 300 million connected to the internet and is expected to reach 550 million by 2018 (according to a report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of India (IAMAI)), we have immense potential to digitally transform the education sector. Wearable technology has become a popular trend in the Indian market in the recent years and the youth, especially students have shown great interest in wearables. The data gathered from these devices can be used to come up with the best educational plans and improving classroom experiences. Using wearable technologies could help revolutionize the education industry by personalising learning for students and making it more effective.