WMU Student Wins $100K for Health Care AI That Breaks Language Barriers in Hospitals

*A Haitian American graduate student is putting $100,000 toward a medical translation system designed to keep families from waiting hours for care.*

Samuel Marseille, a WMU graduate student studying international development administration, won both the $25,000 public vote prize and the $75,000 judges prize in the inaugural Cultivate 269 pitch competition on April 10.

His company OneShot AI is billed as the first HIPAA-compliant translation system that combines artificial intelligence with human interpreters.

Marseille built the product after witnessing a situation at a hospital where a mother and son waited five hours to get care while staff waited for a French interpreter.

"I had five missed calls from a hospital," Marseille said. "A mom and a son waiting for five hours to get care while staff were waiting for a French interpreter. I built a product to make sure this does not happen to any other family."

Marseille is an international student from Haiti who speaks four languages including French, Spanish, English and Haitian Creole.

OneShot AI currently translates Spanish, Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, Kinyarwanda, Swahili, Pashto, Farsi, Burmese and Telugu. Users can request a human interpreter at any time.

"The AI is used for more urgent situations, but when it comes to hospital discharge, you need a human," Marseille said. "AI will never take over human translation."

The company trains its software and interpreters to incorporate the cultural aspect of translation, taking into account various accents, dialects and differences between countries.

"This cultural aspect is what makes us the highest standard here in Michigan," Marseille said. "It's about ensuring the dignity of that person, making sure they make their own choice not under the assumption of someone else."

OneShot AI scored the highest in a blind judge vote based on three criteria levels: the founder's story, innovation in the market and the impact of the funding.

"They had impact, they had the founder story and honestly, they were a five out of five," said Cultivate 269 Judge Johnnie Turnage. "If we could all stand in the same room and understand each other, that solves a lot of problems."

The funding from Cultivate 269 will be used to finalize OneShot AI's patent, add more languages to the software and support their upcoming pilot.

The company is planning to launch in June with a Michigan pre-launch partner program.

"Based on the pilot projection, our monthly recurring revenue is $33,000 for four pilot partners, but our projection is to see a growth of $289,000," Marseille said. "We hope to see several other healthcare providers join for our pilot in June."

Marseille noted that most of his team are WMU alumni.

"We have that Bronco mindset," Marseille said. "We have a strong sense of purpose to make sure what happened to that mom at three in the morning does not happen to any other families."

Former Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby J. Hopewell announced that all nine finalists would receive an additional $25,000. Hopewell is the CEO of Kalamazoo-based firm Kabundant.

"Our role in this community is to help entrepreneurism with underrepresented folks, escalate, fill gaps and provide resources," Hopewell said. "We want all nine of you to be right here in our community doing what you have demonstrated so well on this stage."

OneShot AI was just one of nine finalists in the competition, but a total of 49 entrepreneurs submitted their ideas for the competition.

The competition was a partnership between Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Forward Ventures, aimed to spur creativity and entrepreneurship among the next generation of founders.

"I am not extraordinary, I am just someone with a passion," Marseille said. "I didn't limit myself. Set the bar as high as you can."

He continued.

"It's not just about the money, it's more about making a world where everybody speaks the same language."

KzFV announced plans to continue Cultivate 269 annually, with hopes to increase the stakes each year.

"We want to show the city of Kalamazoo how much noise Western can make when you really put money on the table," said KzFV Director of Platform and Programming Marcel Fable Price.