Participated in public demo 2601 with Zaal

The problem [00:00:00] Educators and students in higher education routinely get overloaded, juggling deadlines and tasks while the information and tools they need are scattered and cluttered, with no easy way to surface program-specific guidance. What they built [00:00:55] He built Zaal, an AI-powered educational assistant platform for students and educators. Its Personal Assistant answers program-specific questions, like available research opportunities, by drawing on the student's profile and program context. A Depth Assessment tool lets students test their understanding of course material against Bloom's Taxonomy using course notes educators upload as a knowledge base, run in either a sequential Socratic mode or a topic-hopping mode, at Quick, Standard, Thorough, or Comprehensive depth. Zaal also includes an Opportunities board for sharing scholarships, jobs, and conferences, and a Student Toolbox of curated learning tools. What happened [00:03:15] He is piloting Zaal in his own courses this semester to work out bugs and other user-experience issues before incorporating feedback into further development. The ask [00:03:15] Arash is inviting institutions and educators to pilot Zaal in 2026, incorporate feedback, and explore funding to bring the platform to VUB's master's programs and beyond; he welcomes anyone interested in collaborating or using Zaal to get in touch.