AdmitHub won the Grand Prize at the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge in the Technology Access category at HUBWeek.
The award ceremony took place at City Hall Plaza in Boston, with over 700 people in attendance. Speakers Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman of Alphabet), Sheila Marcelo (CEO of Care.com) and others discussed topics like Artificial Intelligence, financial inclusion, and the Future of Work. Over 1,000 companies from all over the world applied to the MIT IIC and the IDE awarded over $1 million in prizes and $150,000 to the four grand prize winners.
Of the approximately 2.5 million U.S. students who enroll at colleges each year, 48% fail to earn a degree within six years. Students who drop out disproportionately come from underserved communities. The societal impact is staggering, costing the U.S. an estimated $4.5 billion in lost earnings and taxes annually. AdmitHub has designed an innovative solution – an AI virtual assistant. With it, students receive 24/7 personalized support, and more data is available for universities to provide greater individual support.
In February of 2016, AdmitHub partnered with Georgia State University to build the first artificially intelligent (AI) virtual assistant into the higher education enrollment process. Through a randomized control trial with GSU, an experimental study showed that the virtual assistant significantly improved matriculation rates of committed would-be freshmen by 3.3 percentage points.
AdmitHub and Georgia State University were also recognized on October 20th, winning the Excalibur Award, which recognizes Georgia companies and organizations that demonstrate the best use of technology, typically provided by a third-party, to solve complex issues and processes in business and education.
Founded in 2014, AdmitHub is an edtech company committed to fostering college success with conversational artificial intelligence. AdmitHub’s virtual assistants provide on-demand assistance via chat by gathering data, sending reminders, answering questions, surveying students, and connecting students to appropriate advisors. Currently, AdmitHub has various university partnerships focusing on recruiting prospects, yielding admits, and retaining enrolled students.
