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Catalin Voss

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Catalin Voss
Born1995 (age 28–29)
Heidelberg, Germany
EducationStanford University
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur; co-founder & CTO of Ello Technology, Inc.
Known forInventor, Founder

Catalin Voss is a German-born inventor and entrepreneur. Voss is considered a pioneer in applying artificial intelligence and machine learning for societal impact in areas such as childhood literacy, Autism, financial inclusion in emerging economies, and the criminal justice system.[1][2][3][4]

He is currently the co-founder and CTO of Ello, an AI-powered reading tutor for children.[5]

Early life and education

[edit]

Catalin Voss was born in Heidelberg, Germany.[6] At the age of 12, when the Apple iPhone was released for the first time, Voss taught himself iOS development[7] and launched a podcast and online tutorials about iPhone app development which attracted over 200,000 viewers.[8]

At age 15, Voss caught the attention of Steve Capps, one of the creators of the original Apple Macintosh, who offered him an internship working on mobile app development at PayNearMe.[9] With Capps, he helped to design, develop, and co-launch the mobile payment platform, and was kept on by CEO Danny Shader as a software engineer.[9][7][6]

Voss graduated with honors from Stanford University in 2016 with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science and a specialization in Artificial Intelligence.[10] Voss enrolled in Stanford’s PhD program in Artificial Intelligence, but has been on leave since 2020 to co-found Ello.[5]

Sension

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While still an undergraduate student at Stanford, Voss founded Sension, a computer vision startup.[11] Sension developed advanced facial motion capture technology that could be used for a variety of applications from driver monitoring systems to educational analytics, but the original purpose of the technology was to track student engagement during online courses.[8] Voss served as CEO of Sension and led the development of the company's core technology.[11]

In 2015, Sension was acquired by GAIA Systems Solutions, a Toyota-affiliated company, for an undisclosed amount.[12]

Autism Glass

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While working on the facial recognition technology for Sension, Voss realized that emerging technology–which could identify emotions–would be helpful for his Autistic cousin.[13] Voss shared with the NY Times how his cousin used to practice making facial expressions in the mirror to learn to recognize emotions[2] With Terry Winograd and Dennis Wall, Voss founded the Autism Glass Project to develop a wearable AI system that could provide real-time social cues to children with ASD.[14] The system used machine learning algorithms to analyze facial expressions and provide visual and auditory feedback to the wearer through a heads-up display.[15] Children would wear Google Glasses which would provide information to the wearer about the emotions expressed by people around them.[16]

In 2016, Voss and his team published a paper at the IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) describing their approach, which won the best paper award.[17]

Over the next several years, the Autism Glass system was evaluated in a series of clinical trials at Stanford Medical School which found that children who used the device showed significant improvements in their social skills and ability to recognize emotions.[18]

In 2018, the intellectual property for the Autism Glass system was licensed to Cognoa, a pediatric behavioral health company.[19]

DukaConnect

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In 2017, Voss co-founded DukaConnect, a Nairobi-based startup that developed a low-cost, computer vision-based point of sale system for small retailers in Kenya which used a smartphone camera to automatically recognize products and record sales, eliminating the need for barcode scanners.[3] DukaConnect’s mission was to harness the power of technology to help small business owners in Kenya focus on what matters to grow their businesses sustainably.[20] In 2018, Mastercard acquired DukaConnect for an undisclosed amount and integrated the technology into its Lab for Financial Inclusion in Nairobi.[21]

Project Recon

[edit]

As a PhD student at Stanford, Voss co-led a project called "Project Recon" that used natural language processing to analyze racial disparities in parole hearing transcripts in California.[22] Voss and his team collected and analyzed over 35,000 parole hearing transcripts from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).[23]

When the CDCR refused to release certain data on inmate race and attorney representation, citing privacy concerns, Voss and his team sued the CDRC to gain access to the data.[24] In 2021, a California Superior Court judge ruled in Voss's favor, ordering the CDCR to release the requested data.[1]

Ello

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In 2020, Voss co-founded (with Tom Sayer and Elizabeth Adams) Ello, an AI-powered reading tutor for children, and currently serves as its CTO.[25]

Ello's stated mission is to maximize the potential of every child by providing access to high-quality, personalized reading instruction.[26]

In the summer of 2023, Ello raised a $15.5 million Series A funding round, led by Project A and Goodwater Capital; other funders include Netflix founder Reed Hastings, Ravensburger, and Y Combinator.[4]

In the fall of 2023, Ello was named one of the top 10 AI products for ethical and responsible AI practices by Common Sense Media.[27]

In January 2024, Ello released an all-digital version of the product, which includes a library of over 700 decodable books which align with the Science of Reading.[28] Dr. Tim Shanahan, literacy expert from the University of Illinois at Chicago, joined Ello as an advisor as this shift occurred.[29][5]

Ello's core technology is a speech recognition model, trained on over 130,000 hours of child speech, that analyzes children's speech in real-time.[30]

Personal life

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Voss lives in San Francisco with his fiancee, Ruby.[5][31]

List of awards

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  • 2019 Google PhD Fellowship[32]
  • 2016 Lemelson-MIT Graduate Student Prize[33]
  • 2016 Stanford Kennedy Thesis Prize for Best Honors Thesis in Engineering and Applied Sciences[34]
  • 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 (youngest listed, at age 20)[35]
  • 2014 Business Insider 40 under 40[36]

Patents

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  • US10835167B2, Voss, Catalin; HABER, Nicholas Joseph & Wall, Dennis Paul et al., "Systems and methods for using mobile and wearable video capture and feedback plat-forms for therapy of mental disorders", issued 2020-11-17 
  • US20240071185A1, Voss, Catalin, "Mobile device platform for automated visual retail product recognition", issued 2024-02-29 
  • US9626701B2, Capps, Stephen P.; Minor, John Paul & Voss, Catalin, "System and method for facilitating cash payment transactions using a mobile device", issued 2017-04-18 
  • US9892315B2, Voss, Catalin & HABER, Nicholas Joseph, "Systems and methods for detection of behavior correlated with outside distractions in examinations", issued 2018-02-13 
  • WO2022140166A1, VOSS, Catalin; SAYER, Thomas Robert & Nag, Anish, "Systems and methods for speech validation", issued 2022-06-30 

References

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  1. ^ a b Schwartz, Saira Hussain, Cara Gagliano, and Adam (2020-08-11). "Victory! Court Orders CA Prisons to Release Race of Parole Candidates". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 2024-06-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ a b Metz, Cade (2019-07-17). "Google Glass May Have an Afterlife as a Device to Teach Autistic Children". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  3. ^ a b "Checking your browser". www.f6s.com. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  4. ^ a b Forristal, Lauren (2023-09-07). "AI reading coach startup Ello raises $15M to bolster child literacy". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  5. ^ a b c d "About Us". www.ello.com. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  6. ^ a b "Catalin Voss | Lemelson". lemelson.mit.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  7. ^ a b Palmer, Ross (2021-10-08). "Catalin Voss: Founder of Ello and Silicon Valley Social Entrepreneur". Ross Palmer. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  8. ^ a b Tanner, Adam (2017-06-14). "19-Year-Old Teaching Your Laptop to Pick Up Your Feelings". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  9. ^ a b "Epicenter: Story - Changing the Way We Use Technology". epicenter.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  10. ^ Stanford 125 (2016-07-28). "Scaling autism's walls: Catalin Voss". Stanford 125. Retrieved 2024-06-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ a b "Voss '16 respected in Silicon Valley, founded Sension startup". 2013-10-01. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  12. ^ "(GAIA Systems Solutions Inc. Archived 2015-11-23 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 November 2015.)".
  13. ^ "Google Glass lives on as a device to teach autistic children | Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute". neuroscience.stanford.edu. 2023-10-23. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  14. ^ University, Stanford. "Autism Glass Project". autismglass.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  15. ^ Metz, Cade. "Clinical Trial Will Test if Google Glass Can Help Kids with Autism". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  16. ^ "Google Glass could change the way autistic kids read faces". Associated Press. 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  17. ^ "The Wall Lab | Congratulations to Autism Google Glass team for Best Poster award". wall-lab.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  18. ^ digitale@stanford.edu, <img src='https://med stanford edu/news/media-contacts/erin_digitale/_jcr_content/image img 620 high jpg/digitale-erin-90 jpg' alt='Erin Digitale'> Erin Digitale Erin Digitale is a senior science writer in the Office of Communications Email her at (2017-05-08). "Google Glass helps kids with autism read facial expressions". News Center. Retrieved 2024-06-11. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ "Stanford Medicine licenses Google Glass-based autism tech to Cognoa". MobiHealthNews. 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  20. ^ "x.com". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  21. ^ "Mastercard: Diligent About Digital In Africa". www.forbesafrica.com. 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  22. ^ "Is Natural Language Processing Ready to Take on Legal Hearings?". hai.stanford.edu. 2021-05-03. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  23. ^ "THE RECON APPROACH: A NEW DIRECTION FOR MACHINE LEARNING IN CRIMINAL LAW" (PDF).
  24. ^ "Petition - Voss v. CDCR". Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  25. ^ "About". Press Releases for Readers of Times of San Diego. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  26. ^ "Ello". Y Combinator's Work at a Startup. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  27. ^ Staff, eSchool News (2023-11-27). "Ello, World's Most Advanced AI Reading Coach Recognized by Common Sense Media as Top AI Tool". eSchool News. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  28. ^ "Ello is using AI to write hundreds of e-books to help kids learn to read".
  29. ^ "Ello Leverages GenAI to Launch the Largest Catalog of Science of Reading Aligned E-Books". Yahoo Finance. 2024-01-23. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  30. ^ "Ello is using AI to write hundreds of e-books to help kids learn to read".
  31. ^ "Top San Francisco Bay Area, CA Kids + Family Companies 2024 | Built In San Francisco". www.builtinsf.com. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  32. ^ "Announcement of the 2019 Fellowship Awardees and Highlights from the Google PhD". research.google. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  33. ^ "Voss Fact Sheet" (PDF).
  34. ^ "Stanford seniors' thesis projects garner university medals". news.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  35. ^ "Catalin Voss". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  36. ^ Robinson, Melissa Stanger, Melia. "40 Under 40: People To Watch In 2015". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-06-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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