AI-assisted caregiving tools for autism and complex care coordination - ON-1171

Project type: Innovation
Desired discipline(s): Computer science, Mathematical Sciences, Psychology, Social Sciences & Humanities
Company: Anonymous
Project Length: 4 to 6 months
Preferred start date: As soon as possible.
Language requirement: English
Location(s): ON, Canada
No. of positions: 2
Desired education level: Master'sPhD
Open to applicants registered at an institution outside of Canada: No

About the company: 

Seva Intelligence Inc. is a Canada-based startup developing a caregiver-centric technology platform for families supporting autistic individuals and those with disabilities or complex care needs.

Caregiving information is often fragmented across schools, clinics, therapists, and home environments, placing a heavy coordination burden on families. Seva addresses this gap by enabling caregivers to securely log daily observations, routines, medications, behaviors, and progress, and translate this information into structured, meaningful summaries that can be shared with professionals when appropriate.

The platform is grounded in lived caregiver experience and informed by psychology, education, disability studies, and ethical AI principles. Seva prioritizes emotional safety, consent, privacy, and dignity, particularly for neurodivergent individuals and their families.

Currently in MVP development, Seva is validating workflows with caregivers and professionals to ensure real-world relevance and impact. While initially focused on autism and high-needs caregiving in Canada, the platform is designed to scale across health, education, and social service systems.

Describe the project.: 

This innovation project focuses on developing and validating AI-assisted features that support caregivers of autistic individuals and those with complex care needs.

The project aims to improve how unstructured caregiver inputs, such as daily notes, behavioral observations, routines, and uploaded documents, are transformed into structured insights and summaries that can be safely and meaningfully shared with clinicians, educators, and therapists.

The intern will contribute to product innovation by combining applied research, design, and technical experimentation. Key tasks include mapping caregiver and professional workflows, designing data structures for caregiving logs, supporting natural language summarization approaches, and testing outputs for clarity, bias, and emotional safety.

The project emphasizes a human-centered methodology, integrating principles from psychology, social sciences, and accessibility alongside AI techniques. Evaluation will focus not only on technical performance, but also on caregiver trust, interpretability, and real-world usefulness.

The outcome will be refined MVP functionality, validated AI workflows, and clearer design and ethical guidelines for scaling Seva responsibly within autism and disability support ecosystems.

Required expertise/skills: 

This project requires an interdisciplinary skill set spanning technology, social sciences, and caregiving contexts.

Desired expertise includes psychology, social work, disability studies, education, human-computer interaction, health informatics, or AI/data science. Experience or coursework related to autism, neurodivergence, caregiving, mental health, or behavioral observation is highly valued.

Technical assets may include familiarity with natural language processing, prompt design, qualitative data analysis, Python, or applied machine learning, though deep technical specialization is not required.

Strong qualitative research skills, empathy, ethical reasoning, and comfort working with sensitive human data are essential. The ideal candidate is thoughtful, detail-oriented, and interested in building technology that supports vulnerable populations with dignity and care.