SINGAPORE – Mr Matthew Lim used to struggle to find information on grants and assistance schemes as a polytechnic student with special educational needs (SEN).
Mr Lim has Coats disease, a condition that gradually causes blindness in his left eye. The 20-year-old, who has graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in human resource management with psychology, said that many forms of support exist, from financial aid to exam accommodation, but applying for such schemes was not easy as information was not easy to find.
His personal experiences inspired him and 10 teammates to develop a Telegram chatbot with the use of artificial intelligence to provide users with personalised support based on their needs. They named the chatbot Elfie.
The team’s goal was to make information on SEN support more accessible, as such information is usually found across several school, organisation and government agency websites.
“Information would be buried below layers of buttons or menus. So I guided the team to focus more on increasing the accessibility of knowledge,” said Mr Lim, standing beside his project booth at the South West Community Inno Lab Symposium. The event was held at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.
His teammate, Mr Elijah Yuen, 20, a banking and finance graduate also of Singapore Polytechnic, added: “When students with SEN enrol into tertiary education, they have to declare their learning disability. They might miss this window, especially since our inbox is flooded with e-mails during the first week of school.”
Their project was one of 10 featured at the event on May 19. Launched in 2024, the South West Community Inno Lab is a partnership between the South West Community Development Council (CDC) and nine institutes of higher learning.
