Our team of mechanical and electrical engineering students from The Cooper Union developed CUCU, an innovative mental health companion app for NYC Department of Education students.
CUCU (Cooper Union Companion Unit) is a mobile application designed to address the growing mental health crisis among NYC high school students. Our solution combines cutting-edge NLP technology with engaging features to support student well-being.
- 🤖 AI-powered virtual companion (CUCU)
- 📝 Mood-based journaling
- 🎨 Color-coded mood tracking
- 🧘♀️ Personalized mental health activities
- 🏆 Gamification elements for engagement
- 📊 Administrative dashboard for school staff
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Machine Learning
- Python
- Flask
- SQLite
- React Native (planned for mobile development)
Our solution aims to tackle a critical issue:
- 38% of NYC high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless in 2021
- Only 1,101 out of 1,524 public schools had at least one social worker
- 80% of schools did not meet the recommended social-worker-to-student ratio
CUCU provides scalable, accessible mental health support to bridge this gap.
- Lizelle Ocfemia (EE '25)
- Lamiah Khan (EE '26)
- Lei/Raymond Chi (EE '25)
- Aaryan Mahipal (ME '25)
- Jaehyeon Park (ME '26)
We have a 3-year roadmap for CUCU, including:
- Advanced chatbot capabilities
- Beta testing with focus groups
- Initial launch in select Brooklyn and Queens schools
- Iteration based on user feedback
- Expansion to other NYC schools, including private institutions
Our innovative approach and potential for significant impact earned us the second-place prize at the Pfizer 2024 Hackathon.