What if you could learn Japanese through custom AI-generated stories, or practice sign language with an AI tutor that gives real-time feedback?
These are working prototypes built by students in the Google-funded Futures Lab, a partnership with the University of Waterloo. Each lab is an eight-week intensive AI and user experience prototyping workshop. Students from diverse fields like computer science, business and natural sciences develop tools designed to reshape how we learn.
A few highlights from the last two labs include:
Kanji Garden: An app that teaches Japanese through immersive, AI-generated stories and visuals instead of rote memorization.SignFluent: A real-time American Sign Language learning tool that provides instant feedback on your form.MuscleMemory: An on-the-go calisthenics training tool that uses AI camera tracking to provide instant audio feedback on your exercise form, helping prevent injuries.
Led by Dr. Edith Law, the Google Chair in the Future of Work and Learning, this partnership moves beyond theory, helping students co-create the very technology that will define the future of education and work.
See the projects in action and hear the students' key insights:
The MuscleMemory team learned that non-technical skills such as applied communications skills can be valuable to a product prototyping project.
The Kanji Garden team learned to approach challenges with a user-centered mindset.
The SignFluent team learned product design at the intersection of accessibility and technology.