Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: This is the owlcast, the official podcast of ACS Athens.
This is the student edition. Listen to the exciting story of the american community schools of Athens.
Check out what drives all the members of our international community of learners as we create the education of the future.
Here's John Papadakis.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's episode of the Owlcast. This week is the ACS Athens Open edition, where student entrepreneurs and dreamers of new ideas come together to think out of the box and shape their future. Just by the look of the student faces, today's episode promises to be nothing short of extraordinary.
Joining us are the brilliant minds behind some truly innovative concepts that emerged from last year's ACS Athens open. From the hydroponic green wall to gamified learning platforms, these students are redefining what it means to think creatively and boldly. Today, we will talk to the students who introduce the concept of a hydroponic green wall in the school, but also thought about ways to revolutionize the way schools approach sustainability in education.
Also, how how can we make the school more exciting for students? By gamifying teaching and learning and engaging in activities with tangible rewards. As they are explaining, they believe that learning should be fun and rewarding and their idea is designed to do just that, ignite students passion for exploration and discovery. It is ideas galore today and it's an opportunity for us to meet the student who thought about building a platform to match students interests and foster collaboration on diverse projects. It's all about connecting students with like minded peers and empowering them to unleash their creativity together. Another student introduced the idea of an AI generated news website that curates content tailored to middle school students interests. Finally, well meet the students behind the idea of the smart recycling bin. All these students exemplify the spirit of ACS Athens open today. Their journey in the owlcast navigates them through the challenge of finding connections between seemingly dissimilar projects and trade places, but also as theyre gearing up to deliver the ultimate elevator pitch to investors, this years ACS Athens open idea challenge is now taking shape. On April 23, finalists for the next phase are announced, while on May 24 and 25 well have the innovation bootcamp. So stay tuned and listen as students turn dreams into reality, one idea at a time.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: I'm 15 from grade ten and I had seen some announcements about ACS open, but I actually thought about joining because I got an email from Doctor Nelson.
I thought that it was a good opportunity because I thought it would look good on my cv, but also because I am thinking of following a major in engineering. So this creative process, but also exploring new technologies would be a really good opportunity for me.
[00:03:45] Speaker D: Okay, well, I'm Qianhao Wang, and I'm also from the 10th grade. I'm the partner of 14. So I got in touch with the ACS open project because, I mean, I saw posters everywhere in the campus, of course. But the reason that made me join the project was actually that I got recommended by two of my teachers. And at first I actually signed up for. I signed up with my own project idea, but then it sadly got rejected, so I joined for the nice group. So we basically work on the same project now.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Okay. What did you think in the beginning when you saw the announcement, what did you think that ACS Athens open is?
[00:04:22] Speaker D: Well, I think it's an innovative project. I saw. It's cool. But at that time, I was kind of struggling because I was thinking if I would have the time to work on this or not, if the teachers didn't recommend me, maybe I wouldn't be here today.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Okay, teacher recommendation.
[00:04:39] Speaker E: Hi, my name is Katerina Logan.
I actually did not join ACS Athens open last year. I was onboarded. This year, my co founder, Dimitris Magnidakis came up with the idea and he onboarded me because he was moving to Brussels.
So I would communicate with him online and we could both work on the project together. And I think it's been a very important educational experience in the way that we're simulating and actually not even simulating in real life. We're creating an entrepreneurial journey, and that's a really important thing to learn about because it's an incredible career path. And now that we're actually developing a startup, you can understand what your future job as an entrepreneur can look like.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Okay, so you're going to talk about it a little bit later about your project, the entrepreneurial project.
[00:05:34] Speaker F: I'm still lucky I'm in 10th grade. I got in touch with the AC's innovation lab, which leads the AC's open project a long time ago. Win was first being developed and I was asked to be a part of it. And Miss Stannis was like, I heard you the other day. I know you can't join after school. Please be part of this. And slowly, slowly, I started helping out with the innovation lab, and aces open came up and I was like, oh.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Yes, this is for you.
[00:06:00] Speaker F: Oh, yes. I've waited for this day a very long time. It's happening. I'm coming in. No one can stop me.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Excellent. Excellent.
[00:06:08] Speaker G: Hi, my name is Dennis Romain, and I'm an 11th grade student.
I saw acs open as a great opportunity to catalyze the process of turning an idea into a business. And I had a nice idea to go with it.
And in the process, we've also gained lots of insight into the business world.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: So for that, excellent, valuable.
[00:06:30] Speaker H: Hi, I'm Bassam, and like Katharina said, I really liked acs open. The idea of replicating, like, an action entrepreneurial journey and, like, an actual startup incubator. So I joined last year, and my idea got accepted. But then I sort of changed my idea and joined forces with Dennis, and now we're partners working on our idea.
[00:06:49] Speaker I: My name is Gloria. I'm in 7th grade, and my parents got an email and my brother about the ACS open. I've also seen the posters around the school last year, and my brother was thinking of joining, but he realized that it wasn't for him since he didn't like public speaking and all that.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: You do public speaking?
[00:07:11] Speaker I: Yeah, we do.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:13] Speaker I: So I thought of the idea, and I pitched it, and they really liked it, and I got chosen.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: So tell us your idea.
[00:07:22] Speaker I: So my idea is to, since many students and staff at the ACS Athens at our school don't really know about where their food comes from. So I want to develop a hydroponic green wall for the school cafeteria so students can learn about where their food comes from and how the green wall works with a club that, like, meets together every week and sees how it works.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:52] Speaker I: Right now, I've found where to purchase the wall, and I'm speaking with the manager of the company, and we're talking about how they can send it over here to Greece.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Okay, and what do you think this is gonna lead to? Are you looking to see a lot of green walls around the campus?
[00:08:15] Speaker I: At first, I just want to start with one and then see where it leads to. And if it would work at this school, maybe it could work at different schools in Athens. So it could go to different schools.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Excellent. Excellent. We'll be here to see. Okay, pass on.
[00:08:33] Speaker H: So me and Dennis, we're essentially striving to revolutionize the very outdated industry, which is education. And we've noticed that many students have, like, little to no interest in grades. And grades also fail to encompass what happens beyond the classroom and the school. So students often lack incentive for, like, extracurricular participation and stuff like that. So as a result, students are less engaged, less motivated, and less interested in their schooling.
[00:09:00] Speaker G: So as a solution, we're proposing a modernized gamification platform that appeals to the interests of students in our target demographic, which at the start is going to be high school. And this will also be centralized. So it does manage to encompass things that happen outside of the classroom. And to make it even more special, we've coupled it with tangible rewards so students aren't just receiving arbitrary points. And we got a lot of positive feedback from this.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Overall, in your process of developing the idea, did you do research? Did you find something from other places, or was this a totally original idea of yours?
[00:09:38] Speaker G: Well, there were other competing platforms in gamification, but they didn't target exactly the same demographic as us, and they also didn't approach it in the same way as in with tangible rewards. So our idea also changed a little bit over time, but we believe that our current idea is not something that you can find on the market right now.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:58] Speaker H: It's also sort of a combination of many different ideas that have come together and some things of our own.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Excellent. Excellent.
[00:10:06] Speaker F: So what I'm doing is basically, I have noticed that people are not finding like minded students to pursue creative projects with. So I'm basically creating a customized journey that guides the students from meeting each other, to pursuing their project, to publishing it through the whole school. And this will be done through a forum platform that matches the students together.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: So your project is to create a platform. What is it exactly that you want to see at the end of your project?
[00:10:35] Speaker F: Basically, hopefully, will be a website platform that will do everything from forums to matching students to leading them through the whole process, and then eventually finalizing it in a post that leads to the school.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: And at what point is your project right now?
[00:10:55] Speaker F: Idea and team building and mock ups, having the mock up, the mock up.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Of how the website is going to look at, I assume that it's going to show how creative you also are. It's not a matter of just matching people. Right.
Okay. Of course.
[00:11:10] Speaker F: So that's like a speck of sand in the whole thing.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: The speck of sand.
[00:11:15] Speaker F: Not exactly speck of sand, but you get, it's one part, it's not the whole.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Okay. All right.
[00:11:21] Speaker E: So according to interviews, we've identified how 70% of middle school students aged from eleven to 13 years old are not interested and do not read the news. So our solution is to develop an AI generated news website, curating the news for middle school students based off of their interests.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: In your opinion, why do you think this is an issue?
[00:11:48] Speaker E: This is a very important issue because kids around the world, I mean, they don't understand what's going on. We are in an international school, and there's kids that come from all parts of the world, and they really have to understand what's going on in every part, so they can actually have fruitful conversations with each other about what's actually going on.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: And why choose AI to do the curating of the news?
[00:12:11] Speaker E: Well, the news have very. According to interviews, the students believe that the news have very complex vocabulary, and AI has really, we've experimented with the AI, and we've noticed that it can get to a reading level that we would understand. I'm a freshman in high school, and I just got out of middle school, and while plugging in news articles into AI, I've noticed that it is what would be my reading level a year ago or two years ago in middle school.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Sounds very interesting. Yes.
[00:12:41] Speaker D: Well, the problem that we identified is that students are not motivated and find it hard to recycle because there is not enough education on the identification of recyclable materials. So we came up with the idea of building a smart recycling bin with a camera. Basically, you can put your trash in front of the camera, and the camera scans it, and then the AI identifies what trash it is, and it displays a message on the interactive screen that will be also on the smart recycling beam, basically teaching you and guiding you how to recycle the material you have and while educating you through the process.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: Have you been in this situation where you went to recycle something and you didn't know exactly what to do?
[00:13:24] Speaker D: Of course. That's basically every time.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Every time. Okay. Did you talk about this idea with other students or friends of yours?
[00:13:32] Speaker D: Yeah, I've talked with many other students, and they all believe that this is a great idea because they also don't know how to recycle. I mean, from, like, from my own experience in this school's campus, most of the students don't know at all how to recycle. As you can see in the school cafeteria, that the recycling bins are filled with trash that's not recyclable.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Okay, that's very interesting.
[00:13:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. We're working on the same project with the recycling. Yeah, we identified the problem. Right now, we're trying to understand how we can develop the algorithm, because AI is something that we don't know and have never used. And basically, how do you envision it?
[00:14:12] Speaker B: I mean, how do you envision it working? You're talking about an algorithm. You're talking about automatic recognition of the actual object. How do you see it? In your mind.
[00:14:23] Speaker C: So the product that we want to make, we wanted to interact with the person using it so that it's more educational, since that is our selling point.
So the idea is that we will probably use a screen for the interaction and connect an AI model to an application which that will be also connected to an Arduino to use for the automation. So I don't think this will be our, the first model we do, but kind of what we want to lead up to is maybe adding a distance sensor so that if someone comes near the bin, it opens automatically and then it gives you the place to, with the camera to scan your trash and then that will identify it, then tell you the result and then it will automatically open the bin for you so that you can place inside the trash yourself. And then ideally we would like to connect it to another app which has rewards and points and educational games so that it becomes more of an educational experience.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Great.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: You are listening to the owlcast, the official podcast of ACS Athens.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Well, we listen to all the different projects that you're involved in and I see a lot of environmental sensitivities and social sensitivities. I have a trick question for you guys. If you didn't pick the project that you have already picked, which other project would you like to be involved in? From what you heard, let me understand.
[00:16:09] Speaker F: You mean if I didn't do the idea I'm doing, which one of these would I be involved in?
Probably gamification, because that is actually something I had thought about when I was a kid, when I was in school, because I was seeing all those different gamification in quotes, different systems that different teachers were trying to do to incentivize the class and they were all failing on their task. So I was like, what if there was a better system? What if.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Okay, that's an interesting take.
Someone else wants to trade.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: I agree. To be honest, I would also want to go for the gamification.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Two points for the gamification team. Alright.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: I really like the idea and I think it's useful and I think that especially students will really like it because I mean, you get rewards for doing stuff. So I don't know, I would want to join the team and I'm really excited for it to be incorporated so that I can gain rewards myself.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Can you see your project and both of you, I mean, you're in the same team. Can you see your project tied in with their project somehow? And you can also chime in.
[00:17:13] Speaker C: We were actually thinking of connecting them because at least for if we sell to a similar school or in this school, which we are both going to try to implement our projects first because we want to motivate people to recycle. It's ideal for us to connect with a system like the one they are building.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. Someone else. Nobody wants to trade or join. You don't need to trade. You can keep your.
[00:17:38] Speaker F: We're not literally trading.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: No, no, no. This is a game we're playing. Exactly.
[00:17:41] Speaker F: I'm trying to be like, hey, if.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: In any case, in any case for.
[00:17:46] Speaker G: Me, I'm happy with the direction we went in. But I think the nice thing is, like Fotini was saying, you can integrate gamification and this incentive system into many other projects. So for example, for the news website and for the recycling and even for the forum, you can use gamification as an incentive to onboard these things. And that's actually even a feature that we're thinking of that you will be able to onboard different initiatives into our platform.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Okay. And how can you tie the green wall with a gamification?
[00:18:16] Speaker H: We can reward the cafeteria workers for the club members.
[00:18:21] Speaker I: Yeah. Maybe the students that purchase the food from that is given to the cafeteria.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:29] Speaker H: Or it can be like how much of the food you ate or consumed was grown naturally in acs or something like our idea is very dynamic. It can be implemented like almost everything.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: And if you have a system like what they try to do here with the environmental sorting of recycling, you can do something like that also for the food and the rest of the things that around this course, correct?
[00:18:52] Speaker G: Yeah, for sure.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Okay, so I'm an investor and I'm looking to spend money, serious money. So what is your sales pitch to me on your project? How are you going to convince me to give money to your project?
[00:19:09] Speaker G: How much time do we have?
[00:19:12] Speaker B: If it's more than a minute. You don't know your project, so you have to be very brief. That's an elevator pitch. You know, that's how they call it. So you meet me in the elevator and we have maybe two, three floors.
[00:19:28] Speaker F: So remember that time I was pitching my idea before when I introduced it? That was my elevator pitch.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: You don't want to, you don't want to rephrase it or anything. How much money do you want?
[00:19:41] Speaker F: Like a million or something?
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:43] Speaker F: Well, well, I mean, I did say it before and I'm going to say it again now, I guess.
Well, I've noticed that a lot of students are not funding like minded people so they can pursue their creative projects with. So I'm hoping to create a journey for them to come from meeting those other people all the way to publishing their project and all of that being done through a single platform.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: And what is the end goal?
[00:20:05] Speaker F: And the end goal is that more creative projects will be onboarded and will be incentivized and created and be shared with the school.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: I can be creative in many different ways. Why be creative in your way?
[00:20:18] Speaker F: Because you're gonna get to meet someone and talk with someone who you wouldn't expect talking to before, who may share the same passion with you and want to do the same things with you, and you may not see it coming.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Okay, I'll consider your offer.
[00:20:31] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Who's next?
[00:20:32] Speaker F: For $5,000.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: Just 5000? You said a million, $10,000.
Who's next?
[00:20:40] Speaker G: We can go.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:42] Speaker G: So education is a huge industry. It's worth billions and billions worldwide, but it's extremely outdated. It's relied on this grade system, which is centuries old and it's not changed since. And it doesn't really address the demands of modern students properly. So we have kind of found a solution not to substitute grades, but to enhance them and redefine student engagement.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: You can both talk. I mean.
[00:21:11] Speaker H: Yeah, no signs.
[00:21:12] Speaker G: Okay. And our solution is gamification, which we've seen whenever it's implemented in school on a small scale, it's incredibly effective. And students also agree. I mean, you even heard the feedback. Now students really believe that gamification will be effective in enhancing their education.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: How about the opinion of the teachers?
[00:21:31] Speaker G: We've gotten very positive feedback from teachers. What a teacher wants to see most is their students succeed and then be successful in educating the classroom and what they want to teach.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: So you have a teacher sponsoring you? Yeah, the idea. Yeah, yeah, of course.
[00:21:46] Speaker H: And it makes it, it makes the teacher's life much easier because the hardest thing for a teacher to do is to start incentivizing students from their own. So if they have this sort of platform which already does that, start focusing on other things.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: But gamification also needs work from the teacher. It's not that you're taking work out of the teacher.
[00:22:04] Speaker G: Right, the way we are.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: You planning it in a different way? No.
[00:22:08] Speaker H: We want to make it as easy as possible as a teacher and as entertaining as possible for the student. And obviously the teacher still are going to have to do some stuff because not everything is automated. They're going to have to manually go in and then choose a student and a reward and a task and whatever. But the thing is that, first of all, obviously, it's much less work than what they're actually doing, and it's at least they're actually incentivizing students, which every.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Teacher we've talked to, we reach the floor. Okay, I'll consider your offer. Okay. Who else? Yes.
[00:22:37] Speaker E: So we have identified that the majority of middle school students in ACS Athens and in other schools do not read the news. 70% of middle school students at this school do not, are not engaged in the news. So we have come up with a solution to make a simplified news website for middle school students, using AI to curate the news and use simpler vocabulary. Also using reliable news sources.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Why would I care if young people read the news?
[00:23:09] Speaker E: Because it's very important for education to know about what's going on in the world.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: For education for the young people.
[00:23:15] Speaker E: You mean for the education of the middle schools?
[00:23:17] Speaker B: The education of middle schoolers. So, for me, the incentive to invest in your project is that I'm going to have more informed young people in the schools.
[00:23:28] Speaker E: Exactly.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: And the result of that would be.
[00:23:31] Speaker E: It'S an important part of their education to know about what's going on in the world. A lot of students are not aware of the things that are going on outside of Greece or even in Greece.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Okay. So it gives you a more holistic idea of the world.
[00:23:45] Speaker E: And also, students are on social media, are reading unreliable sources. And within the this news website, we would have reliable sources using these articles to give students the news. So not only will they be well informed, they'll know the right things, they'll be able to trust this website to get the right information. Because, for example, on TikTok, how these middle school students, even I did, I would watch a video and it would be completely unreliable. And then I would go around talking about it and people would be like, what are you talking about? So really, it's about knowing what is going on, using reliable sources, and just understanding what is going on in the world.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: So if I'm looking to hire someone in my multi million dollar company, it's a good bet that I can come from your group of informed young people.
[00:24:40] Speaker F: Exactly.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: Okay. That's a good pitch. Okay, what's your pitch?
[00:24:44] Speaker I: So, I'm developing a hydroponic green wall to help the ACS Athens students and staff learn about how their food is made and where it comes from, with a club that meets every week of the school year to learn about how the hydroponic green wall works and how the food is produced.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: Okay, so how is that going to make me more money.
[00:25:07] Speaker I: It's going to save money if, since there are trucks driving every day, each day delivering food, vegetables to the cafeteria, and we would have the green wall here, so the cafeteria workers would just go to the wall, take them and make meals.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: So is sustainability something that you're interested in?
[00:25:32] Speaker I: Very interested.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: Okay. All right. The last project, why do you want my money?
[00:25:40] Speaker C: So in general, right now, there are a lot of issues with the environment. And I mean, the most popular solution is recycling. And if you look around you, everywhere you go, you find a lot of recycling bins. But how many of them are actually used in the school? Here we have actually checked the trash bins out, the recycling bins, and it was full of errors. So what we are developing is a smart recycling bin with an interactive system for guidance towards material recognition, using AI technology to assist and educate students in recycling, along with a gamification mobile application to further motivate them in recycling, so that we not only enable people to recycle and help them and push them towards recycling and helping the environment, but we also teach them so that after they leave the school, the citizens of our future, which are kids right now going to the school, will have been educated and are now going to be recycling.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Okay, so the recycling business, you think that this is something that can also be sustainable? Meaning if you go into this particular mode of recycling, can we scale it? Can we sell the idea to other schools or other organizations?
[00:26:57] Speaker C: I think yes, because the school is trying to motivate students to recycle. So, I mean, this would be easier. And also we were thinking in the future we should start with schools and make it educational. But then if we manage to develop an easier technology so that the interaction with the machine is basically nothing and it sorts them by itself, we could also scale it to public places.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: Okay, great, great. So I got a very good idea of what your projects are. Closing this discussion, can you think of one word that expresses your project and say that word? What word would you think expresses your project?
[00:27:42] Speaker H: Motivate.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: Motivate.
Great.
What would someone want to remember when they work or they see your project?
What's the final idea? Motivate is very good. Communicate, communicate. Very important.
[00:28:01] Speaker D: Sustainability, maybe.
[00:28:03] Speaker C: Sustainability, I was thinking of that too.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: Okay, so, yeah, because these two are very close. Right. Your project and your project. Greenwall and automatic recycling project. Right. So I'll give you that. It's common sustainability.
The last one, I'd have to say.
Informing.
[00:28:25] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Okay. Congratulations, everybody. Thank you for sharing your ideas.
[00:28:31] Speaker H: Thank you, sir.
[00:28:31] Speaker F: Thank you very much.
[00:28:32] Speaker I: Thank you.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Take care.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: You are listening to the Owlcast, the official podcast of ACS Athens. Make sure you subscribe to the owlcast live on Google Podcasts, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. This has been a production of the ACS Athens Media studio.
