By Dave DeFusco

When Emmanuel Kasigazi came to New York to study in the Katz school’s M.S. in Data Analytics and Visualization, he brought with him years of experience as an entrepreneur from Uganda and a vision to make quality education available to students anywhere, even without internet access.

Kasigazi and Abraham Isyagi, a student in the M.S. in Cybersecurity, and Mehul Bafna, a student in the M.S. in Artificial Intelligence, are part of a select group in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) program, which trains researchers and students across the United States to turn their ideas into real-world products and services. Through this highly competitive program, they are developing Axam, an offline, AI-powered education platform designed to bring interactive learning to classrooms and communities where connectivity, privacy and focus are major challenges.

Another Katz School student team in the NSF I-Corps program is developing an AI-powered voice agent to help patients search for clinical trials, reflecting the school’s growing focus on innovation in healthcare access. Katenda Enock, a student in Katz School’s M.S. in Computer Science, is using his experience to sharpen his entrepreneurial instincts and connect fast-moving technical health care innovations with real market needs. Ebenezer Andoh, a recent graduate of the M.S. in Biotechnology Management and Entrepreneurship, is probing one of the field’s most persistent challenges: the barriers that keep underserved and minority communities from enrolling in life-changing clinical trials.

Kasigazi's team developed Axam to run entirely on low-compute devices—the kind commonly found in schools with limited resources—and works without ever connecting to the internet. The platform acts as both a “Student Learning Companion” and a “Teacher’s Toolbox.” For students, Axam offers friendly, easy-to-understand tutoring and explanations for subjects like algebra and English, modeled after the “Explain Like I’m 5” approach to simplify complex ideas. For teachers, it automatically creates lesson plans, handouts and differentiated materials, saving hours of preparation time each week.

“Most schools in developing countries have computers or tablets, but not reliable internet,” said Kasigazi. “Everyone has a smartphone, but not everyone can afford to be online all the time. So I asked myself, what if we could make AI work completely offline, safely, and just for education?”

Kasigazi believes the key is combining accessibility with security. Because Axam’s data never leaves the local device or school network, it meets strict privacy standards such as FERPA and U.S. Department of Education compliance requirements. “Schools want to make sure their data never gets beyond their walls,” he said. “With Axam, everything stays on the premises. Nothing goes to Google, OpenAI or any cloud.”

The platform could also serve settings where the internet is banned for safety or legal reasons, such as prisons, juvenile justice programs or high-security facilities, where education must still continue. “There are tens of thousands of students in those environments,” said Kasigazi. “They can’t just connect to ChatGPT but with Axam, they can still learn safely and effectively.”

Kasigazi’s inspiration for Axam came from years of working with nonprofits like UNICEF in Uganda, where he helped deliver supplies to refugee schools. “I realized that even in remote areas, students had access to some kind of computer or tablet,” he said. “The problem wasn’t the hardware, it was the internet. Most AI tools today depend on being online and that’s simply not possible in many parts of the world.”

His participation in the NSF I-Corps program, especially the recently concluded Summer 2025 New York Regional I-Corps Lean Bootcamp, has helped him refine both his product and business model. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is never assume,” he said. “Most startups start with a solution looking for a problem. I learned to first identify who exactly my customer is, whether it’s a principal, a teacher or a school district, and then build from there.”

Through I-Corps, Kasigazi has also learned that building technology for education is about more than just solving technical problems, it’s about understanding people. When he first started, he thought the biggest challenge would be internet access.

“After talking to teachers and administrators, I realized compliance, privacy and ease of use were even bigger issues,” he said. “The platform has to be simple enough that even a young student can use it in two days.”

At the Katz School, Kasigazi said he’s found the perfect environment to grow as both a data scientist and an innovator. “New York is the hub of technology and ideas,” he said. “Our professors are at the forefront of AI, and we’re constantly encouraged to go to conferences, tech mixers and workshops to stay ahead of what’s coming next because learning also happens outside the classroom. Being here has shown me how fast the world is changing, and how education must evolve with it.”