Optimum Maths

Inspiration

One of the team members presented the idea as he had first-hand knowledge of the difficulties faced by students in remembering maths equations. This could have an impact on grades because equations are a vital part in answering some of the exam questions and not knowing those equations could result in losing marks. The team researched the problem and found out that over 30% of students struggle to remember equations in exams. The team decided that it was a worthwhile problem to resolve as it affected themselves as students and many other students.

What it does

This Skill allows Alexa to recall any equation you would like to know from the GCSE maths syllabus. It is a very quick method for students to have access to these equations while doing homework or practice exam papers.

How we built it

The team used Alexa Skills Kit to program the invocation name, the intents, the sample utterances and the slots for each equation. We also used AWS Lambda (node.js) to program what Alexa would say when these intents were triggered.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was that we had to learn to learn so many new aspects of building a product, which includes: AWS Lambda, Alexa Skills Kit, JavaScript, marketing research, the business model and making a presentation, all within five days. Nobody in the team had much experience in any of these aspects prior to joining the Alexa Bootcamp, organised by Acorn Aspirations.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We actually managed to build a fully functional skill within a very short space of time.

What we learned

We have learnt a lot on those new skills, which includes: AWS Lambda, Alexa Skills Kit, JavaScript, marketing research, the business model and making a presentation.

What's next for Optimum Maths

We would like to add the following features to this Alexa Skill in an update: 1) Add cards to offer a visual experience on certain screen-based Alexa devices. 2) Allow users to make a favourite list of difficult equations, which can be helpful for revision just before an exam. 3) Make brand new products such as: Optimum Physics, Optimum Biology, Optimum Chemistry, etc to recall difficult-to-remember facts, such as: definitions, formulae and other facts for GCSEs.