Irish voice-tech company signs deal with US university

Irish voice-tech start-up SoapBox labs has signed another deal in the US that will see its technology used to assess reading fluency.

The project with the University of Oregon integrates the Irish company’s technology with the university’s new assessment tool, CBMskills, in what SoapBox has described as a “huge stamp of approval and credibility” for its voice engine.

The platform is used to understand the progress of early readers, incorporating phonemic awareness, word identification and oral reading fluency assessments. The assessment uses timed reading passages to track a student’s progression, allowing teachers to highlight fluency errors and specific disorders.

“Although the link between reading fluency and comprehension is widely acknowledged, it’s particularly critical for struggling readers. The advancements in speech recognition technology – and development of a voice engine, like SoapBox, that captures the unique rhythms and patterns of young voices – allows us to much more effectively and precisely unpack where students are struggling, so we can intervene more strategically and more quickly. That’s a really exciting development for reading instruction,” said Dr Gerald Tindal, director of behavioral research and teaching (BRT) at the University of Oregon.

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“The collaboration between SoapBox Labs and BRT provides an innovative partnership of research to practice, so teachers can move from data collection to data use in helping students learn to read.”

SoapBox has developed voice technology aimed at young voices and educational use cases, that can accurately understand children’s unique speech patterns, differences in accents or dialects, and power early literacy and language tools.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with the College of Education at the University of Oregon, which has long been a pioneer in advancing the field’s understanding of how we learn to read, as well as the development of effective tools that put that research into practice,” said Martyn Farrows, chief executive at SoapBox Labs. “This partnership underscores our commitment to revolutionising language and reading development through technology, and together with the University of Oregon, we’re continuing to leverage voice technology to help teachers and students.”

SoapBox Labs has signed a number of deals to grow the reach of its technology, including a multiyear deal with educational publisher Scholastic and US-based Imagine Learning.

The company was last year awarded the first product certification to an educational technology company that focuses on equity in the design of artificial intelligence systems: Prioritising Racial Equity in AI Design. It serves as an indicator for education stakeholders and families that products recognise the importance of mitigating racial bias in new learning tools and technologies.