An app created by Bryant’s Nick Goyette ’29 and three teammates that improves communication between educators and students on the autism spectrum captured first place in the accessibility category at the inaugural AI Build-a-thon, hosted by Babson College and co-sponsored by Bryant University and Bentley University.
The build-a-thon, which was held in April and hosted by Babson’s interdisciplinary AI lab, The Generator, included more than 250 participants from 35 Boston-area universities.
Bryant students Allison Courtemanche ’27, Parker Devine ’28, Victoria Sousa ’27, ’28MBA, Evan Jackson ’27, and Olek Bogusz ’29, helped organize the student-run event, traveling to the Babson campus along with a team of Bulldogs competing for thousands of dollars’ worth of prizes in three categories: athletic performance, accessibility, and “unseen markets.”
“It was a great opportunity for our students to collaborate with students from other schools,” says Bryant Trustee Professor of Management Mike Roberto, who advised the Bryant student leadership team. “Students had the opportunity not only to build an AI-driven application but to think about a business model and how to persuade judges that it was viable.”
Personal connections provide inspiration
Over the course of 12 hours, Goyette’s team — including Bentley’s Josephine Hofstead and Khussam Mohamed, and Southern New Hampshire University’s Samuel Ayo Oyedemi — ideated, tested, built, coded, and developed the marketing for a product dubbed Vocavi. The product pairs a wearable device and a mobile, AI-driven app to provide educators with real-time information that can help them assess the behavior and emotions of children with autism.
Vocavi’s wearable bracelet tracks information on movement and physiological information like heart rate.
“A lot of kids who are autistic can't fully communicate their feelings or their emotions in the moment, especially those with high needs,” explains Goyette. “It's hard for teachers or parents to understand the child at times. Heart rate and movement is critical to know, especially for teachers, because if the child is [having difficulty] and the teacher doesn't notice, they could start flailing around and hurt themselves. Or, they could just be perpetually stressed out, which is terrible for the school and parents. The app allows them to communicate, without having to communicate directly.”
Alongside the data gathered by the wearable device, educators and parents can record other information (called “snippets”) on the student’s preferences, behavior, and triggers.
“They can enter different things they know about the child, and the AI will learn off of that,” says Goyette.
Vocavi was inspired in part by two team members’ personal connections with individuals on the autism spectrum. That included Goyette and his older brother, Chris. “I've seen him switch schools a lot and seen the struggles and communication that have come from that,” he says.
“Nick took a leading role in delivering the presentation for this team, and he clearly impressed the prestigious panel of judges,” says Roberto. “His sincere empathy helped create a terrific solution.”
“A lot of kids who are autistic can't fully communicate their feelings or their emotions in the moment, especially those with high needs."
Vibe coding to victory
Making the team’s victory even more impressive was that neither the topic nor category were chosen in advance; Goyette’s team also was shorthanded, with four members instead of five due to a late dropout.
“I'm a Digital Marketing student and didn't really have much experience in coding,” says Goyette. “I knew a little bit of vibe coding — using AI software to code for you off prompts, instead of coding by hand — but I was literally sitting in the hall at Babson asking Claude how to vibe code the app. I basically build about 95 percent of Vocavi that way; it was really fulfilling to do it from start to finish.”
Goyette praised his teammates, who he says were highly motivated to win, and produced the marketing materials for Vocavi as well as preparing the slideshow for the presentation so that he could focus on coding.
“Representing Bryant at the Build-a-thon was huge for me, because I love the school and the curriculum,” says Goyette, who’s involved in the university’s Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization and attended the group’s 2026 Bryant University Northeast Entrepreneurship Conference. “It felt great to win and to develop a product that could change lives,” he says.