Professor launches AI-powered teaching assistant

Dr. Krishna Narayanan, electrical and computer engineering professor at Texas A&M University and the department’s associate head for AI, is reimagining the college classroom as co-founder of the AI teaching aid, Encando. 

Heading up the venture alongside Dr. Rujun Gao and mechanical engineering professor Dr. Arun Srinivasa, Narayanan joined the team during the creation phase of the company with an interest in technology-driven education. 

“We want to free up time for the instructor so they can implement proven pedagogical practices in the classroom at scale,” Narayanan said.

Born from Gao’s Ph.D. research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Encando was designed to empower instructors and students alike – acting as a partner in the educational process rather than a shortcut that bypasses critical thinking. 

Designed as a seamless Canvas integration, it reduces administrative burden that can impede teaching. It also gives students direct access to study tools tailored to course content. In large classes especially, this kind of structured support can be invaluable and lead to enhanced engagement, efficiency and overall learning outcomes.

“The response has been very positive from teachers. In fact, some of them have even helped us co-create features,” Narayanan said. “They came back to us saying, ‘It would be nice if we had this, can you build it for us?’ There are many different use cases because everybody has their own way of teaching.”

Students also gain around-the-clock learning support via a personal tutor called ChatTA. While AI tools are often viewed as academic shortcuts that can undermine learning, Encando focuses on guiding students to find the right answers themselves. 

ChatTA operates based on information taken from the professor’s own materials. Any file or video that a professor uploads has the chatbot automatically attached to it, giving students the opportunity to ask in-depth questions about what they’re learning. Students can also use it to generate study guides and practice tests based on the material. For more nuanced questions where direct communication with the teacher is ideal, students can easily click a button in the chat to speak with the professor. 

“I’m using it in my class right now, and it’s fantastic,” Narayanan said. “I’ve had very positive responses from the students, as well.”

In the future, Narayanan and the Encando team plan to continue optimizing and creating new features for educators, such as lesson planners and other useful tools. He hopes to see the software become a staple for higher education teachers everywhere and help improve student performance in classrooms.

As the new associate head for AI, Narayanan continues to assist faculty and students with AI-related endeavors. He emphasizes that a huge opportunity is available in the tech landscape for students interested in creating an AI startup, explaining that the speed at which you can build software prototypes is much faster and more accessible than it used to be. 

“Now is the time to think about problems you can provide real solutions for, because the barrier to entry is significantly lower than it has ever been due to AI coding tools,” he said. “If you really put forth the effort to solve problems, prototyping solutions is easier than it’s ever been before.”