Nappi\u2019s individualized adaptive programming and design major combines areas that are central to SmartCards, including machine learning, educational psychology, and game design. His own time in the classroom influenced the idea for his and Mallick\u2019s product.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just something I had in the back of my head from my experience with video games growing up and how they helped me grow as a person, and also my experience with the education system as well,\u201d Nappi explains. \u201cI had undiagnosed ADHD growing up. Luckily, I did well in school [and] had the support I needed, but I would still always hear these teachers [saying] \u2018Pay attention; stop distracting your classmates,\u2019 and constantly [being] on me about my behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merging Learning and Fun in Augmented Reality<\/strong><\/p>\n SmartCards can function as typical physical flashcards with pictures and pieces of information. However, the cards are designed to interact with technology for hands-on learning.<\/p>\n With a tablet, students can log in to the SmartCards web app. They can then take a SmartCard and place it on a table in front of the device\u2019s camera, which will sense and scan special markers on the flashcard\u2019s picture using image-tracking technology. The device will then display the associated scene in augmented reality for students to interact with using hand gestures and buttons.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to give students the ability to take these 3D objects that appear in the augmented reality space, and manipulate them,\u201d says Nappi. \u201cSo if you\u2019re learning about the earth, we want [you] to be able to take the layers of the earth apart and look at it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n SmartCards also interact with each other. For example, students can take the earth and moon cards, place them next to each other, scan with the camera, and watch the moon orbit the earth. They\u2019ll also get related facts about the moon and the earth.<\/p>\n Nappi and Mallick are starting with a solar system-themed deck of flashcards, which they\u2019ve tested themselves and are continuing to develop with the help of an agency. They hope to get the cards in children\u2019s hands around April for them to test and provide crucial user feedback.<\/p>\n Getting SmARter on the Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n SmartCards began to take flight when Nappi met Mallick in Spring 2021 in a course called \u201cThe Entrepreneurial Journey\u201d led by David Noble, director of the Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and Tara Watrous, the Werth Institute\u2019s head of entrepreneurial transformation. During the social distancing brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mallick says Noble and Watrous encouraged the students to develop relationships with each other, and tasked them \u201cto come up with a solution to a societal problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[Justin and I] immediately connected over our goal of changing the way we think about education, and the way we view education, and the ways in which education is limited toward only certain types of students,\u201d Mallick says.<\/p>\n Researching extensively, Nappi and Mallick found that 1 in 4 learners today are neurodivergent, and have different learning styles that often aren\u2019t conducive to the traditional classroom setting. Mallick explains these students are often removed from class as a result, creating an educational gap between them and their peers.<\/p>\n Mallick also knew from her high school experiences of working with students with disabilities that they\u2019re no less smart than their peers, yet may be perceived as such when they\u2019re removed from class, creating harmful biases. Nappi, who participated in unified sports with people with autism and Down syndrome, says the SmartCards project is intended to address these problems.<\/p>\n \u201c[Neurodivergent people are] some of the nicest people you\u2019ll ever meet, but at a lot of schools, you don\u2019t have the opportunity to meet them because they\u2019re in different classrooms, and it\u2019s all for their education,\u201d Nappi says. \u201cBut they\u2019re really missing out on this social piece. So I always thought there had to be a way to incorporate some sort of video games\/having fun with education to give them a leg up so that they don\u2019t have to be removed from the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n While the cards are targeted to neurodivergent students, Mallick and Nappi\u2019s goal is to find an intersection between technology, learning, and entertainment for all students in school and at home.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially when you\u2019re a younger student from grades 2-5, learning doesn\u2019t have to be this thing that\u2019s so stressful and competitive, and you just sit and learn,\u201d Mallick says. \u201cIt can be something that\u2019s fun. It can be something that you enjoy doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Meeting Challenges and Moving Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n Running a business hasn\u2019t been easy for Nappi and Mallick, as they work with novel AR technology, handle public relations, meet with investors, and do much more\u2014 all while being full-time undergraduate students.<\/p>\n However, the student-entrepreneurs credit much of their success to those at the Werth Institute like Noble and Watrous, who continue to advise them and provide opportunities like their recent participation in the Big East Start-Up Challenge. Mallick and Nappi also recognize UConn\u2019s uniquely supportive entrepreneurial environment, as they\u2019ve befriended and mentored many other students with their own start-ups and businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like a lot of times when I talk to my peers in other schools who have done entrepreneurship, it\u2019s this cut-throat, competitive environment where you\u2019re constantly trying to climb the ladder,\u201d Mallick says. \u201cYou\u2019re constantly trying to get ahead of other people. You\u2019re trying to pull them down to get up. Whereas the difference that I see at UConn \u2013 like what David [Noble] has really created \u2013 is that we are all trying to pull each other up to bring us all up together.\u201d<\/p>\n Noble, meanwhile, notices how much Mallick and Nappi have themselves grown since they started SmartCards in his class two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cJustin and Sudzy met in my class as freshmen, and they never could have imagined such a shared purpose around education and technology,\u201d Noble writes via email. \u201cI have had the pleasure of working with them ever since as they have grown from children in the pandemic to young adults pursuing the development of SmartCards in earnest. Their journey will build a shared experience from college that they will always remember.\u201d<\/p>\n While Mallick and Nappi know that much work lies ahead as they continue to build SmartCards, they\u2019re proud of how much they\u2019ve grown as entrepreneurs after beginning with little to no experience. As Nappi shares, they\u2019re also dedicated to the goal of \u201cincluding everyone in the learning process and not discriminating based on how you learn.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf all those moments that we could have chosen to stop, we continued to keep going,\u201d Mallick says. \u201cWe thought that this was something that we really wanted to see. I think it goes to show how much we care about the issue as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ‘Of all those moments that we could have chosen to stop, we continued to keep going’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":196282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,1731,2256,2235,2306,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-196114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-voices","category-uconn-edu-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 08:06:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196114"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196117,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196114\/revisions\/196117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/196282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196114"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=196114"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=196114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"SmartCards](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/030923-SmartCardsNappiMallick-2-300x200.jpg\")