Binghamton students’ ADHD project to compete for Microsoft Imagine Cup

According to the World Health Organization, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects around 5% of children and 2.5% of adults worldwide. Hundreds of millions of people deal with cognitive symptoms such as an inability to make decisions, inattention, impulsiveness and inappropriate emotional reactions.

While medication often can help to alleviate the worst symptoms, two Binghamton University students think they have a tech-savvy way to keep those with ADHD on track — and their idea is a strong contender in a Microsoft Corp.-sponsored contest.

Clay Battle and Ever Goldin, both juniors in the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Computer Science, are semifinalists in Microsoft’s 2024 Imagine Cup with their company Roadmap, along with co-founder and Georgia Tech student Aaliya Jakir.

The global technology competition celebrates students who build startups with artificial intelligence at their core. Roadmap is one of 20 teams chosen among hundreds of entries from more than 50 countries.

The trio met as first-year students at Binghamton and collaborated on a HackBU hackathon project before Jakir transferred to Georgia Tech. They continued to work together on Roadmap, an AI coach that creates personalized advice for users to keep themselves on track.

After entering their project into accelerator programs through the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator and Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X Startup Launch last summer, they received $5,000 in seed funds and filed paperwork to establish Roadmap as a corporation.

“You think: What’s stopping me from doing all these cool projects?” said Goldin, who hails from Woodstock, N.Y. “Now we have the resources, so it’s amazing to push yourself to really build stuff, which I love.”

The Roadmap team members feel passionate about helping those with ADHD but say their project also could motivate anyone avoiding tasks or similar problems.

“ADHD has a lot of stigma, especially outside of the United States where education about it isn’t as good,” said Battle, who is from Bristol, N.Y. “People might be discriminated against just for having it, or some say, ‘Oh, it’s not real.’”

As part of their research, the students attended the Annual International Conference on ADHD in Baltimore last fall. Among the things they learned was that people with ADHD have different motivators and thrive best on a combination of urgency, interest, competition and novelty.

“That spring-boarded us forward,” Battle said. “We connected with hundreds of people on the cutting edge in the field, so we have a good understanding of the problem as well as connections in the industry. We began to hone in on what exactly people with ADHD are struggling with. The biggest thing is task activation, something that everyone struggles with to an extent when you have stuff you have to do and you don’t want to do it, so you put it off.”

Roadmap utilizes OpenAI’s ChatGPT, starting with a quick questionnaire for users about how they have accomplished tasks in the past. Is it better to have music in the background or silence? Are planners an effective way to track what needs to be done? Do deadlines offer enough motivation, or is something else needed?

The results generate a first version of how it can help going forward. As users continue to input information about their activities, the suggestions become increasingly personalized.

“Right now, it looks like a chatbot and is a chatbot, but we want it to be so much more,” Goldin said. “This is just the prototype — we want the whole application to mold around how you work best as a user, like the interface changing what it’s showing to you.”

Of course, while preparing for the Imagine Cup semifinals, the students need to keep up with their academic pursuits. Goldin credits good communication among the teammates for striking a good balance: If one of them has a midterm or other important deadline, the others pick up the slack for a few days.

“I do better in my classes when I spend time focusing on this project, because then the time I do spend on my schoolwork is so much more efficient,” he added.

The Roadmap students will present their work to judges on April 9 and should learn soon after whether they are among the three finalists. The winning team wins $100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, while the runners-up each get $50,000.

Win or lose, Battle, Goldin and Jakir plan to continue refining Roadmap, including more testing with people who have ADHD to improve the algorithm that makes the suggestions. They hope to raise enough funds to devote all their time to it this summer.

“We’ve all had time where we can work on it full time, but it’s never matched up so all of us can do it together,” Goldin said. “We’d love to work on it like full time without having to worry about school or having enough money while we’re doing it.”