AiC Episode 63

In this episode, Teri welcomes Shanthan Kesharaju, the creator of Sermo Labs, which specializes in Alexa Skill development.

Welcome Shanthan Kesharaju!

Shanthan has created a number of skills over a number of years, which all have an educational component. They include top trending Alexa skills like 1-2-3 Math, World Mathematics League, and Hungry Birds. Shanthan also works as the Product Manager of Artificial Intelligence in a financial services company. His interests are in Artificial Intelligence and Analytics. He is a really smart guy, knows his technology, has a great business sense and on top of that, he has a really good heart.

Sermo Labs and Getting into Voice Technology

  • Sermo Labs focuses on building voice applications which make learning fun and engaging.
  • They have so far built three different Alexa skills which help users hone their math and logic skills.
  • Their flagship skill is the 1-2-3 Math which they created in 2014.
  • It has three different difficulty levels; Easy, Medium and Hard. The Easy level consists of simple addition, subtraction, and lower elementary topics.
  • In the Medium level, the user can test their multiplication, division, and simple equations.
  • In the Hard level, equations require the user to do at least two or more operations to get to the answer.
  • The Easy level is mostly for lower elementary kids. Medium is for elementary and middle school kids while Hard level is for anyone who is interested in solving math problems.
  • They once received an email from someone whose grandfather was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and a doctor suggested cognitive exercises for him. They somehow came across 1-2-3 Math and his grandfather was using it every day to keep his mind sharp by practicing 5 minutes a day. This was an eye opener for Shanthan because he never imagined that it could be used by someone on the edge of getting Alzheimer’s.
  • 1-2-3 Math has been featured on various high profile blogs like Business Insider, Mashable, and Common Sense Media as one of the best Alexa skills to practice math. It has also received raving reviews on the Amazon Alexa store.

World Mathematics League

  • The second skill is the World Mathematics League. It’s based more around competition. Users get a few minutes every day to answer as many math questions as possible. The user’s score is then automatically added to their team score. Being enrolled into a team is based on location. One is enrolled based on their country or state.
  • World Mathematics League won the grand prize in the Amazon Alexa’s Tech for Good Hackathon. It also won the Best Alexa Skill for Education at the 2019 Alexa Conference.

Sermo Labs with Shanthan Kesharaju

Hungry Birds

  • Hungry Birds is a multimodal skill that focuses on teaching kids programming. The skill is based on a bird trying to reach its nest. The path to its nest is made with worms and corn. When the bird lands on a worm or a corn, it can perform either of two moves; it can move forward, turn left, turn right or do nothing. When the game starts, the first scene has a bird, a nest, a bunch of worms and corn, and a fox. The user has to select two moves for the corn and two moves for the worm so that when the bird lands on a corn, it performs the two moves associated with corn or when it lands on a worm, it performs the two moves associated with a worm.
  • If one selects the right moves at the start, they end up staying on the right path and reaching the nest directly. If one doesn’t select the right moves, they go off the path and get caught by the fox.
  • There are 10+ challenges where the user gets to pick these moves and see how well their choices fair. This skill teaches a programming concept called “Functions.”

Talking at the Alexa Conference about 1-2-3 Math

  • When Amazon announced Alexa, he was one of the first people to pre-order the device in the hope that he would be able to develop some skills, even though he didn’t have any idea about what skill he would create.
  • His preschool son came home one day and he was face-timing Shanthan’s brother in India, telling him about how he had learned addition in school. Shanthan’s brother asked Shanthan’s son a few math questions. They did this until the uncle got tired, but the boy wanted more. This gave Shanthan the idea to create an Alexa skill where Alexa keeps asking the math questions without stopping.
  • When Shanthan created the skill, he tested it with his son When he saw his son liked it, he tried it with a few of the kids in the neighborhood, but some of them felt it was too easy. That gave Shanthan the idea for difficulty levels.
  • He launched the skill 2014/2015, and from people’s responses, Shanthan was able to keep improving the skill.
  • The skill is a success story and has been featured in education blogs.
  • They just launched premium content in the 1-2-3 Math skill where users can enhance their question base by about 20 to 25 questions.

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