Hope Simulation

Inspiration

✨ Our inspiration stems from personal experiences and direct industry needs. One team member's involvement in suicide prevention training highlighted the urgent need for more effective mental health support. Additionally, conversations with Microsoft revealed a critical demand for improved technical support training. These insights drove us to create Hope Simulation, aiming to address both mental health and technical training through innovative, interactive simulations.

Problem

Current mental health training programs are ineffective. Platforms like Kognito and MindWise offer fixed video-based scenario training with multiple-choice assessments that fail to engage users or foster deep understanding.

Solution

🛠️ Our platform, Hope Simulation, offers a more effective and realistic approach through simulated learning in situational scenarios. This method is supported by the latest Learning Sciences research, which shows that situated learning and worked examples enhance student engagement and comprehension. For instance, Chris Piech's GPTeach paper highlights the effectiveness of interactive and realistic teacher training using GPT-based students, demonstrating the value of simulated environments for learning.

Market Potential

• Service Obtainable Market (SOM): We can target colleges and universities globally. There are approximately 1,900 to 2,673 universities worldwide that participate in these rankings alone (Times Higher Education (THE)). For the United States specifically, there are around 4,000 universities. If we charge each institution $5,000 annually and target even 10% of U.S. universities (400 institutions), this could yield $2 million annually.
• Service Addressable Market (SAM): Expanding our reach to high schools and colleges globally can significantly increase our potential market. There are over 15,400 universities in Asia, 5,565 in Europe, and 5,315 in North America, totaling approximately 26,280 universities worldwide (AUBSP). By targeting 10% of these global institutions (about 2,628 institutions) at the same rate of $5,000 per institution, we could generate $13.14 million annually.
• Total Addressable Market (TAM): By scaling our solution globally and targeting all educational institutions, including universities, high schools, and other training facilities, we can achieve substantial market penetration. With around 26,280 universities worldwide and assuming we reach 20% of these (approximately 5,256 institutions) at $5,000 per institution, we could generate $26.28 million annually. Expanding to high schools and other educational facilities could further increase this potential, making our solution impactful and widely adopted across various educational levels.

Expansion Opportunities

Our solution also has potential beyond healthcare training. For example, the VP of Microsoft highlighted similarities between mental health training and technical support training. Both require skills in active listening and emotional intelligence, making our simulation applicable to various industries.

How we built it

🔧 We built Hope Simulation using a Next.js front end, MongoDB back end, Hume and Zoom APIs, and AWS for cloud services.

Challenges we ran into

⚙️ We encountered issues with connecting to the Zoom API, which required troubleshooting and adjustments to our approach.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

🏆 We are proud of successfully interacting with Hume directly through a Zoom call, showcasing the integration of our simulation with live communication tools.

What we learned

📚 We learned the importance of creating realistic and interactive training environments to enhance user engagement and learning outcomes.

What's next for Hope Simulation

🚀 We plan to expand Hope Simulation to more educational institutions and explore new training applications in various fields, including technical support and other areas that require soft skills like active listening and emotional intelligence.

Built With

• amazon-web-services
• hume
• mongodb
• next.js
• recall
• zoom