By Dave DeFusco
When Emmanuel Kasigazi came to New York to study in the Katz school鈥檚 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 two other Katz School students, Abraham Isyagi and Mehul Bafna, are part of a select group in the National Science Foundation鈥檚 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, he is 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.
鈥淢ost schools in developing countries have computers or tablets, but not reliable internet,鈥 Kasigazi said. 鈥淓veryone 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?鈥
Axam runs entirely on low-compute devices鈥攖he kind commonly found in schools with limited resources鈥攁nd works without ever connecting to the internet. The platform acts as both a 鈥淪tudent Learning Companion鈥 and a 鈥淭eacher鈥檚 Toolbox.鈥 For students, Axam offers friendly, easy-to-understand tutoring and explanations for subjects like algebra and English, modeled after the 鈥淓xplain Like I鈥檓 5鈥 approach to simplify complex ideas. For teachers, it automatically creates lesson plans, handouts and differentiated materials, saving hours of preparation time each week.
Kasigazi believes the key is combining accessibility with security. Because Axam鈥檚 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. 鈥淪chools want to make sure their data never gets beyond their walls,鈥 he said. 鈥淲ith Axam, everything stays on the premises. Nothing goes to Google, OpenAI or any cloud.鈥
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. 鈥淭here are tens of thousands of students in those environments,鈥 said Kasigazi. 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 just connect to ChatGPT but with Axam, they can still learn safely and effectively.鈥
Kasigazi鈥檚 inspiration for Axam came from years of working with nonprofits like UNICEF in Uganda, where he helped deliver supplies to refugee schools. 鈥淚 realized that even in remote areas, students had access to some kind of computer or tablet,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he problem wasn鈥檛 the hardware, it was the internet. Most AI tools today depend on being online and that鈥檚 simply not possible in many parts of the world.鈥
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. 鈥淭he biggest lesson I鈥檝e learned is never assume,鈥 he said. 鈥淢ost startups start with a solution looking for a problem. I learned to first identify who exactly my customer is, whether it鈥檚 a principal, a teacher or a school district, and then build from there.鈥
Through I-Corps, Kasigazi has also learned that building technology for education is about more than just solving technical problems, it鈥檚 about understanding people. When he first started, he thought the biggest challenge would be internet access.
鈥淎fter talking to teachers and administrators, I realized compliance, privacy and ease of use were even bigger issues,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he platform has to be simple enough that even a young student can use it in two days.鈥
At the Katz School, Kasigazi said he鈥檚 found the perfect environment to grow as both a data scientist and an innovator. 鈥淣ew York is the hub of technology and ideas,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ur professors are at the forefront of AI, and we鈥檙e constantly encouraged to go to conferences, tech mixers and workshops to stay ahead of what鈥檚 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.鈥
