Project Us
Project Us is an AI-enhanced web platform to help people improve their socio-cognitive functions (e.g., empathy & collaboration), created by Camilo Rojas and designed by researchers and students at the MIT Media Lab.
Overview
Project Us is a platform that captures different signals from the user, such as speech signals and facial expression, and applies signal processing to extract features that feed the AI systems. Using this information, the system predicts the emotional state of the user in different dimensions, including arousal and valence.
Contributions
My job with Project Us started in 2021.
After one year working at Saving Face, and due to my experience co-leading the team of students of that project, I was invited to work at Project Us.
My work consisted of two main branches; the principal one was co-leading the technical efforts, and the second one was my final graduation project.
I worked on one of the prototypes of emotion recognition using speech signals. I used Deep Learning techniques, the RECOLA dataset, and the end-to-end approach. This was my final project to get my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.
I designed a model with different layers including Convolutional Layers and Bidirectional RNN Layers. The idea of the project was to predict the arousal and valence of the speakers using the RECOLA dataset. My work consisted in improving the model to get acceptable results, so we could use this same model in real-time in the Project Us platform.
I led the efforts of the transition of this project from research to a startup. I have been working as a CTO. I work with international students to develop a minimum viable product that we could offer to investors.
As part of this journey, Camilo Rojas and I participated in MIT delta v program, which is an Educational Accelerator at MIT that helps startups to boost their potential and grow. This has been one of my favorite experiences, not only because of all the knowledge that I have acquired, but also because I met amazing people during that summer.
I also proposed different ideas for the UX interface. I thought about how users would interact with the system and how they could use it naturally.
I also collaborated with other teammates to design and select the best emotional metrics, so that users can understand them and use them to improve soft skills such as, communication and empathy.
Results
We obtained a resilient model for the platform and got incredible results.
Right now, we are running pilots with different companies to improve Project Us.
If you want more information about Project Us, here is the official MIT Media Lab page and the Startup website.