Research, Recognition & Real‑World Impact

Research, Recognition & Real‑World Impact

Robin isn’t just a mobile app — it’s a meaningful contribution to research, accessibility, and the future of nature‑based learning. From peer‑reviewed publications to real‑world deployment and field testing, Robin is already making an impact in the classroom, in the field, and in academic circles.

Launch Event at the Environmental Interpretive Center (EIC)

On April 14, we hosted Robin's official launch at the EIC from 3–4 PM. The event brought together over 60 attendees, including Provost Gabriella Scarlatta, Dean Ghassan Kridli, CIS Chair Dr. Jie Shen, and our project supervisor Dr. Zheng Song, along with professors like Dr. Sirja Das and Professor Bruce Maxim. Students, faculty, friends, family, and visitors from different schools across campus joined us to experience Robin firsthand.

A highlight of the event was the participation of Donna Posont, a visually impaired guest who helped test the app’s accessibility features live. She’s been a vital point of contact throughout development, and her feedback played a key role in shaping Robin’s voice control, spoken descriptions, and overall usability.

Robin is an AI-powered mobile app that reimagines birdwatching as an accessible, hands-free experience for everyone — especially for visually impaired individuals and young learners. The app combines real-time bird sound recognition, predictive analytics, spoken species descriptions, and a customizable chatbot into one cross-platform experience.

A special thank you to Dr. Jacob Napieralski and the entire EIC staff for welcoming us into their space and giving us the opportunity to turn Robin into a reality. Their support, guidance, and connections to field experts were instrumental in making this project not just possible, but meaningful.

Academic Research

We designed Robin with real‑world usability in mind — but we also wanted to share our findings with the broader research community. Below are the two papers we authored for leading AI & ecology conferences:

Robin: An Intelligent Bird Observation Application for the Visually Impaired and K‑12 Education

  • Status : Accepted — IEEE Electro/Information Technology (EIT) Conference 2025
  • Focus : Voice‑first design, accessibility for visually impaired users, classroom integration
➤ View Full Paper (PDF)

A Spatiotemporal Machine Learning Framework for Ecologically‑Informed Bird Sighting Prediction

  • Status : Submitted — International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) 2025
  • Focus : Forecasting bird sightings with time, location & environmental data
➤ View Full Paper (PDF)

App Store Deployment

Robin is now live on the Apple App Store Download Robin — and will arrive on Google Play after our two‑week Android beta period. It’s free to download and optimized for:

Why Robin Stands Out

Robin blends real‑time bird sound identification, predictive analytics, ChatGPT‑powered conversation, and text‑to‑speech accessibility into one seamless tool. It empowers users of all abilities to explore nature through sound, creating new opportunities for learning, awareness, and connection.

Community & Educational Impact

Robin was built for real classrooms and real users. We have:

The result? Learners don’t just see birds — they hear and understand them in real time.