An AI friend for improved mental health
A spontaneous meeting and a common interest in promoting mental health among young people was the start for Selina Noe och Barbora Havelcová. They met for the first time at the event KTH Innovation Collide. Now they are developing an app together.
Met at innovation event
Four times per year, hundreds of people gather at Teknikringen 1 for KTH Innovation Collide, an event for everyone curious about innovation. At the December event, Selina from Texas met Barbora from the Czech Republic.
"I’ve always had ideas, but I never really went through with them", says Selina. "But I thought, why not go to this event and see what happens?"
Easy networking
All visitors to KTH Innovation Collide start by choosing one or more stickers saying why they’re there. Yellow if you can help, invest or give feedback on ideas; pink if you want to form a team; green if you have an idea and want some feedback; and blue if you’re just there to hang out and meet new people.
"We had formed a circle of people with pink tags. Someone pulled Selina in, and we started talking", says Barbora.
Passionate about mental health
Selina is currently finishing her master's degree in Global Health at Karolinska Institutet, and Barbora recently finished her architecture studies at KTH.
"I immediately felt like she was someone I could work with", says Selina. "She was really kind. We talked about our ideas, and I told her that I always wanted to do something regarding mental health."
The two connected on LinkedIn and kept talking. Last week, they had their first meeting with KTH Innovation’s business coach Eva Halén about their idea, Clara.
An AI-based friend
"Our idea is to develop an AI based friend that can help you find activities that can improve your mental health, based on your own preferences", Barbora explains. "Meditation doesn’t work for everyone, some people feel better from exercise, painting or something else entirely."
"Talking to Eva felt like the first official step toward making this project a reality", says Selina. "We got some great tips and new energy!"
Next steps
The next step is to gather feedback from potential users, and find someone who can help them build the app. In the future, Selina and Barbora want to make a difference in people’s lives.
"The dream scenario is for us to really be able to help people talk about mental health. It would be amazing to see our app implemented in schools and used by teachers to start a conversation around mental health among students", says Selina.
Text: Lisa Bäckman