Case Study: Columbia University enables accessible communication with Google for Education

Columbia University builds accessible calling app in 12 hours with Google for Education

Columbia University students developed Nagish, an app to help people with speech or hearing disabilities communicate over the phone. Their challenge was to create a practical tool that could convert text-to-speech and speech-to-text in real time, making phone calls accessible for those who need it. They built their solution using Google for Education's Google Cloud platform, specifically its Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech APIs.

Using Google Cloud's Compute Engine virtual machines and APIs, the student team created a seamless proxy that processes incoming and outgoing messages. The solution, funded by an initial grant of Google Cloud Education credits, won Second Place overall and Best Hack for Social Good at a Columbia hackathon. Google for Education provided the integrated, easy-to-use platform that allowed the students to build a functional demo in just twelve hours and work towards their goal of breaking communication boundaries.

Columbia University