About

My name is Adele Smolansky, and I'm an entrepreneur and researcher! I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cornell University with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science as a Merrill Presidential Scholar. After one year of my PhD at Stanford University in Learning Sciences and Technology Design (LSTD), I decided to take a leave of absence and graduate with a masters from Stanford to work full-time on my startup, AI-Learners. I am grateful for the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) and the National Science Fellowship (NSF) for supporting my PhD work.

Professional Experience: AI-Learners (current)

Inspired by my younger sister, who has a severe neurological disability called Rett Syndrome, I founded AI-Learners, an educational technology platform that helps kids with all abilities learn math. Students all across the country are using AI-Learners with their parents and teachers to learn mathematics. AI-Learners is the first EdTech platform to provide accessible math games for students with diverse physical, cognitive, and behavioral abilities. We recently won the Learning Engineering Tools Competition 2022 by Schmidt Futures! Check out the website at ai-learners.com and read more on the AI-Learners page!

To support AI-Learners and the EdTech research field, I'm committing to advancing the scientific understanding of how EdTech can help students with disabilities. At Cornell University, I worked with the Future of Learning Lab, advised by Rene Kizilcec, and the Enhancing Ability Lab, advised by Shiri Azenkot. At Stanford, I had the pleasure of working with Nick Haber for one year to explore how AI can enhance technology solutions for students with disabilities. I've conducted various studies including systematic reviews, interview studies, survey studies, and theoretical analysis, to better understand the complex needs of students with disabilities and their supporters. Read more about my research projects here!

Professional Experience: MoVi (current)

To further support the entrepreneurial ecosystem, I am working part time as the Head of Product and AI Integration at MoVi, a venture firm that incubates and invests in startups, advises companies, and brings people together. I'm helping the company scale their operations with technology and develop new products that enhance member experience.

Professional Experience: Google

I had the pleasure of working at Google for two summers as a Software Engineering Intern, where I met incredible people and became a stronger computer scientist.

Summer 2021: STEP Intern on the Google Drive Team
During my first summer at Google, I interned with the Google Drive team, working on the Google Drive Counter Abuse project. While developing interactive and secure web pages for the Drive Abuse team using HTML, CSS, and TypeScript, I became a stronger front-end programmer. I also improved my Java skills by using Java to work with APIs to access data from the backend and set proto values to support frontend logic. Since technology should be accessible to all users, I improved the accessibility of the web pages and conducted accessibility testing using Google's accessibility testing framework.

Summer 2022: SWE Intern on the Android Accessibility Team
During my second internship with Google, I wanted to learn more about how Google handled accessibility, so I joined the Android Accessibility team. I developed a new Android Accessibility Service to help developers make their apps more accessible, which involved integrating machine learning models to identify missing accessibility properties in data structures. I then used the new service to solve Talkback bugs and presented my work to the Android Accessibility team.

Teaching Experience

I worked as a Teaching Assistant for two years at Cornell University. I worked with two classes at Cornell University:

• NBA 3000: Designing New Ventures
• eLab Student Business Accelerator

Personal

Outside of school, research, working, and teaching, I love to exercise, travel, and read books. Growing up, I was a rhythmic gymnast, and I traveled around the country competing in various competitions. I've recently begun competing in cycling road races and marathons.