Professor Philip A. Cola (Design and Innovation; WSM) has worked with hundreds of professional and pre-professional students to polish up their presentation skills. With a gentle and warm demeanor, he coaches students on connecting authentically, quickly, and memorably during introductions and speaking opportunities. With the rise of AI, he saw an opportunity to streamline and codify some of the intensive feedback he provides and pursued a fellowship at the IC to develop it.

The application that Professor Cola is building with the IC (PitchCoach) is still under development, but features several phases of feedback: in one module, students will be able to upload a video of a pitch and the app will provide near-instant feedback on a few areas, such as excessive filler words (“uh” and “like”) and reflect back the gist of the speech, allowing students to compare their intended message with what they are actually conveying. Future modules will include body language awareness (pacing, stillness, gestures, and posture) and allow students to practice in virtually populated spaces, such as speaking in front of a crowd, while achieving their goals.