E24: How AI is Revolutionizing Testing and Education with Echo360’s Manoj Rana

Cache Flow

In this episode, Echo360’s Chief Technology Officer Manoj Rana talks about the issues with the current assessment model used in education, the ways educational testing is evolving, and how we can customize the education experience with AI.

Manoj Rana is an engineering leader with a proven track record of building teams across start-ups and large organizations.

Manoj is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Echo360 and has expertise in building scalable, low-latency platforms and delivering innovative products enabling business growth. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Cache Flow:

• The ripple effect of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.
• The ways educational testing is evolving.
• Customizing the education experience with AI.
• How SAT tests are becoming adaptive.
• The future of education technology.
• How academia can better align with the working world.
• The issues with the current assessment model used in education.
• Why Stanford produces so many successful entrepreneurs.
• What makes a startup successful.

Resources:

• Echo360
• Curotec

Connect with Manoj Rana:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Brian Dainis on Linktree

Quotables:

• 16:23 - “If I give a standard question and say hey everybody go home and write an essay about it the majority of the people and the schools are banning it, companies are banning it, but you know how that goes, that’s not going to stop people from using it they’re going to go home and do all types of things. This is in the early stage and it’s all playing out, it will be real-time engagement smaller tests instead of building one big test take home you have three days to complete it it will be more live quick questions polling, and quizzes things like that in the classroom that will become a better tool that’s where we focus a lot so that’s a side effect of what’s happening in the AI world, we’re not necessarily doing AI ourselves.
• 26:50 - “When you say you were not a good student, well first of all you did pretty well so I would say you were a good student whatever you were doing there you were really preparing for what is needed in the real world out there I would say the exams were wrong they didn't catch that and they didn't give you the top grade.”
• 34:11 - “80 percent of your success is all communicating, 20 percent is skill and it said something about even for the software engineers and I actually laughed it off like why I’m going to sit there and do my programming and life is going to be good but that’s not how it works most of the time, you are communicating, you are collaborating, you are doing those things, those skills are really important.”
• 38:45 - “Silicon Valley used to be the space if you are building a software tech company, a startup in the United States it was the place to be and we’re seeing all these other places pop up, Utah has Silicon Slopes and now there’s Austin and Seatle and New York City and DC and Bosten, even Philly, I’m in Philadelphia, Philly’s got nothing like some of the other places I just listed but it’s got a pretty awesome startup scene here and VCs are setting up their satellite offices here and starting to figure out who’s doing what at the seed stage now here in Philidelphia so it is branching out.”
• 40:31 - “The people side will always win, I think if you leave people like Steve Jobs take them to an island they will still do their start-up, they will still create something amazing, that’s just my thinking on it they don’t need to be at Stanford.”