Ryan Jin turned his setbacks as a student into opportunities as an entrepreneur.

The senior computer science and data science double major from Rochester Hills, Michigan, noticed that he struggled to stay engaged in classes while also taking detailed notes and realized he was likely not the only college student facing this dilemma. This past summer, Jin created the AI-powered startup BrainJot to remedy that issue.

"A lot of the note takers you see out there are built for meeting minutes or corporate use," Jin said. "I didn't see one that was focused on classroom notetaking."

Jin's BrainJot aims to allow students to remain more engaged during classroom lectures by providing them study materials to review after class. The software records, transcribes, and summarizes lectures, and generates flash cards and study guides from the content. BrainJot is designed to be an aid to student learning, providing students with materials to thoroughly understand their course material. It does not provide students with solutions but helps them better understand how they may approach a problem.

"With something like ChatGPT, you just ask it for the answer, and it gives you the answer. That hinders your learning," said Jin. "That's not the point of BrainJot. It's actually the opposite."

Associate Dean of Learning and Technology and Professor of Biology and Biomedical Engineering Kay C Dee, PhD, agreed after Jin presented BrainJot and its features to her.

"As an educator, I've now read and heard an awful lot about students using AI in ways that don't help them learn…but when I saw his product in action, I was impressed," Dee said. "A fundamental principle of Universal Design for Learning is to give students options for how they interact with course material, but creating multiple versions of the same information takes time."

Dee continued, "Practices that may have begun as 'accommodations' for certain student populations are often beneficial to many more learners than originally supposed. BrainJot makes Universal Design for Learning principles easier to implement."

Jin spent the summer developing BrainJot and its learning features, launching beta testing of a minimum viable product in July. He has since expanded his beta tests and early adopters to users spanning three universities and several different disciplines.

"Right now, I have a friend at Georgetown using it in her politics and humanities classes," Jin said. "It meant a lot to me that a student in Georgetown was able and willing to use it in a lot of her classes that were more directed in that academic area."

As he has received feedback both from beta testers and from faculty, Jin has continued to iterate and improve the model.

"One of my friends at Rose just recently told me that he was really impressed with the improvement that he saw in detail of his capstone meetings," said Jin. "That was really rewarding."

Jin himself is using his product in a few of his classes this quarter, with permission from his professors and classmates. Relying on his product to help him academically also provided Jin with key insights to build upon.

"Being a student really helped in the building process of this because I am my own target audience," Jin said.

BrainJot offers both a free and a paid version, and Jin is currently offering Rose-Hulman students a free month of access to the paid features with the code ROSEJOT.

Jin utilizes resources at Rose to further develop BrainJot and the business model behind it. This year, he has become more involved in RISE, the Rose Innovative Student Entrepreneurship Club, and intends to participate in the organization's events throughout the year.

"For me right now, it's all about getting that organic user, someone willingly going about using this product," Jin said.

Outside of his studies and his innovation to studies, Jin is also involved in Rose Grand Prix Engineering, serving as the organization's president last year and treasurer this year.

"I'm grateful that it's so easy for me to reach out to people," he said, appreciating the ability to connect with mentors for both his extracurriculars and his entrepreneurship.

He has big plans for his product to aid students in conversations with their own mentors. "The dream right now would be…that this is a tool that's adopted by students across the institution…and be able to propagate across multiple universities," Jin said.

Though his time as a student is winding to a close, Jin's journey as an entrepreneur is only beginning, and the skills he learned at Rose-Hulman will help his peers across the country stary better engaged in course material, enabling them to learn new skills in their own courses and pursuit of dreams.