ARM Institute InnovateX
AI-powered match-making platform for ARM Institute members
Project Overview
ARM InnovateX is an AI-powered matchmaking platform that helps ARM Institute members, especially startups, find the right partners for manufacturing collaboration.
- Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute
- • Jei Park (Product Strategist, Client Manager)
- • Divya Mahesh (Product Manager)
- • Daniella Escobar (Project Manager)
- • Jason Wei (Designer)
- • Anna Ji (Designer)
- • Jei Park (Product Manager, Designer)
Demo Video
Challenge
Our project began with a goal to improve collaboration among ARM Institute members. But as we dug deeper, we realized that collaboration isn't the end—it's a means to a larger goal: accelerating innovation and strengthening the U.S. manufacturing industry. Yet, this ecosystem is complex. With diverse stakeholders across industry, academia, and government, collaboration is often hindered by siloed goals, limited visibility, and lack of inclusive infrastructure.
Hypothesis
Based on our research and conversations with ARM members, we hypothesized that meaningful collaboration, and by extension, innovation in manufacturing relies on trust, visibility, and openness to new participants.
Yet today, smaller and newer organizations often lack the visibility and support needed to engage with the broader network. Without systems that actively promote inclusion and surface the right partnerships, the ecosystem remains fragmented and its full potential unrealized.
The ARM Institute secured two major federal agreements: a $35.4 million continuation with the DoD through 2028 (renewable to $70.4M over ten years) and a new 5-year, $87 million Air Force contract to support dual-use technology research and development.
Dual-use technologies, such as AI, autonomous systems, drones, cybersecurity, and 3D printing, are vital to both national security and economic growth, but their complexity demands close collaboration across academia, industry, and government.
This implies that effective collaboration within ARM's network has a direct and profound impact on both national security and economic competitiveness.
Our research revealed a critical gap in ARM Institute's collaboration ecosystem. Among the ~30 members interviewed who participated in project calls, over 87% reported collaborating exclusively with partners they already knew or were introduced to through existing connections.
Two key barriers emerged:
The member community platform lacks actionable information about potential partners, providing no compelling reason to engage
Finding the right collaborators is inherently difficult, leading members to rely heavily on in-person meetings and mutual introductions
While this reliance on pre-existing networks benefits established members with extensive connections, it creates significant barriers for startups and smaller companies who lack the same level of network access, effectively limiting their ability to participate in meaningful collaborations.
How Might We
To address this, we posed the following guiding question through the lens of Human-AI Interaction:
"How might we use AI to drive smarter, more inclusive collaboration across the ARM Institute—helping members easily find the right partners and accelerate innovation in U.S. manufacturing?"
Once we gained a clear understanding of the key problems and unmet needs within the network, using the Crazy 8s method, we rapidly generated a wide range of ideas. We then collaboratively evaluated and scored each concept based on feasibility, desirability, AI appropriateness, ease of Integration, and more, to identify the most promising solutions.
Building on those key concepts, we created 9 storyboards to explore user journeys and tested them with ARM members to evaluate how well each concept aligned with their needs. During testing, participants engaged in think-aloud protocols and provided ratings across multiple criteria using a structured evaluation scale.
Following storyboard validation, we developed and tested two prototypes grounded in top user pain points.
1. AI Proposal Reviewer
Built in response to member feedback around the burdens of the project proposal process, this prototype explores how AI can reduce the time and effort required in project proposal process, surface missing elements, and guide newer or smaller members through complex requirements.
Key Insights
Smaller member organizations want their contributions to be visible and respected, rather than overshadowed by larger partners.
Identifying suitable collaborators within the ARM network is especially difficult during the early stages of the proposal process.
The current system lacks guidance for finding partners with aligned expertise and interests.
Smaller organizations face reduced visibility, particularly because they are not eligible to lead project calls.
Implications & Next Steps
A major barrier is finding the right collaborators before proposal writing begins.
There is no structured way to match members based on skills, interests, or past project experience.
ARM has a strong opportunity to develop tools that improve member discoverability and foster meaningful connections.
2. Member Engagement Profiles
To gain perspectives beyond our core users, we conducted analogous research with incoming MHCI students navigating new professional communities and collaborative dynamics. Their experiences offered valuable insights into onboarding, trust-building, and engagement. We tested a prototype featuring current MHCI profiles that include focus areas, experience levels, event participation, and overall engagement within the master's program, exploring how an “engagement level” metric influences perceptions and interaction.
Key Insights
The engagement score strongly attracts users and is perceived as a signal of willingness to support others, though its accuracy and fairness are questioned.
Users value detailed project descriptions and specific event information more than broad summaries.
Engagement is seen as an indicator of helpfulness and openness to mentorship or informal meetups.
Implications & Next Steps
Enhance member profiles with detailed project roles, tasks, and event participation.
Incorporate features that highlight members' availability and willingness to support newcomers.
Impact on ARM Institute
ARM InnovateX promises significant impact across multiple dimensions:
ARM InnovateX will transform collaboration by breaking down silos to accelerate robotics and AI development, supporting critical dual-use technologies for defense and commercial markets.
The platform levels the playing field for startups and smaller organizations, enabling them to access high-impact projects and drive inclusive innovation.
By facilitating AI-driven collaborations, it addresses workforce skills gaps while accelerating technology adoption.
InnovateX strengthens U.S. manufacturing competitiveness by faster development and commercialization of advanced solutions.