State-Aware AI
Tutoring for STEM

Helping educators and students utilize AI to create a smarter, more efficient world.

The Crisis

The Substitution Model.

Current AI tools create a "substitution" effect where students bypass critical reasoning. We are seeing a 75% reduction in critical thinking and a "black box" of learning loss that leaves faculty blind.

86%

of students use
AI tools.

75%

report weaker
critical thinking.

73%

depend on AI
over own skills.

70%

encounter AI
misinformation.

Source: Gerlich, 2025 — AI Tools in Society (n=666)

Input: Homework Problem #4

Here is the answer. Don't worry about the proof steps.
Stateless Answer Machine

Outcome: Student bypasses reasoning entirely

State-Aware Mode
How do I solve for displacement?
Based on your knowledge graph, you've mastered Velocity (94%) but your Area Under the Curve mastery is at 38%. Displacement is the integral of velocity over time. Let's start there: can you sketch what the area under a v(t) curve represents physically?
Prerequisite Mastery
Velocity 94%
Area Under the Curve 38%
Our Solution

Adaptive Knowledge Tracking.

Our engine builds a real-time, personalized model of each student's mastery. This state-aware approach ensures deep understanding while providing faculty with precise, actionable analytics to optimize teaching.

  • Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) Engine
  • State-Aware Cognitive Modeling
  • Institutional Insight Dashboard
  • Integrated Tier Canvas Partner
Faculty Endorsement
Prof. Kobe Marshall-Stevens

"A tool that would be indispensable to me as an instructor."

— Prof. Kobe Marshall-Stevens, JHU Mathematics

The Platform

How Altera Works.

Five layers that turn passive AI into a system that actually teaches.

Proprietary Engine

Mastery Tracking Engine

Altera tracks exactly what each student knows and where they're struggling — updating in real time with every interaction. The AI always knows when to push harder and when to slow down.

Live Mastery Formula

Updated after every student interaction

For Teachers

Teacher Command Center

See who's thriving, who's stuck, and exactly which concepts to re-teach — before your next class.

Live Class View
Maya R.
82%
Jordan T.
41%
Alex K.
63%
Real-Time
Class-Wide
Alerts
For Students

AI Tutor That Teaches

Altera never just hands over the answer. It reads your mastery profile and responds with guiding questions and personalized hints — keeping you in the learning zone.

What's the derivative of x²?
Good question — what rule applies when the exponent is a constant?
  • Personalized hints, not copy-paste answers
  • Adjusts to your mastery level automatically
  • Supports math, diagrams, and file uploads
React 19
Zustand
Redis
Canvas Certified Partner

Works Inside Canvas

One click and your class is live. Altera syncs directly with Canvas — rosters, logins, and grades handled automatically. No new accounts, no manual setup.

Canvas
Click Tool
Altera Live
  • LTI 1.3 Advantage Deployment
  • Automatic grade passback
  • Roster sync & Deep-linking
LTI 1.3
Express
OAuth 2.0
For Admins
MAPPING: Curriculum Gaps

Institution-Wide Analytics

Deans and program directors get a bird's-eye view of institutional performance — mapping where structural curriculum gaps are causing students to fail across courses and semesters.

  • Dynamic concept dependency tracking
  • Spot where students fail across multiple courses
  • Upload a syllabus — it maps itself automatically
D3.js
FastAPI
pgvector

Interactive
Cognitive Graph.

Experience the physics-based simulation of our state-aware ontology. This demo uses our production D3 engine and a curriculum derived from an Advanced Kinematics syllabus.

Mastery Encoding

Node colors update in real-time as the BKT engine processes student evidence.

Force-Directed UI

Draggable physics simulation preserves the pedagogical structure of the graph.

LIVE MASTERY ENGINE
Physics v1.02 • Mastery Service active

Socratic Insight

Error Detected

"I've detected a Calculation Error pattern linked to your Newton's Second Law mastery (35%). Let's revisit: if a 5kg block sits on a frictionless incline, how would you set up ΣF = ma along the incline?"

Our Journey

Traction & Milestones.

Jan 16, 2026

Google Cloud for Startups

Accepted into the Google Cloud for Startups program, securing cloud infrastructure credits and technical support to scale our platform.

Google Cloud
Jan 2, 2026

NVIDIA Inception Program

Accepted into NVIDIA Inception, gaining access to GPU cloud credits, DGX Cloud, and NVIDIA's deep learning ecosystem to accelerate our AI engine.

NVIDIA Inception
Dec 17, 2025

Integrated Tier Partnership

Secured Integrated Tier Partnership with Instructure. Verified LTI 1.3 standards implementation for seamless institutional LMS integration.

Canvas
Dec 7, 2025

JHU FUEL Demo Day Win

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2025 Johns Hopkins FUEL Demo Day. Recognized for pedagogical innovation in applied AI.

Read Article
JHU FUEL Demo Day Win
Pava Center
Pava Marie LaPere Center for Entrepreneurship
Nov 2025

Faculty Champion Endorsement

Secured endorsement from Prof. Kobe Marshall-Stevens (JHU Mathematics) as primary Faculty Champion for the TEDCO Baltimore Innovation Initiative.

Prof. Kobe Marshall-Stevens

"I strongly believe that the platform has potential to scale to large-scale classes with hundreds of students. I am hopeful that their platform will help to better shape university environments in the years to come."

— Prof. Kobe Marshall-Stevens

Read Letter
Late 2025

The Strategic Pivot

Strategic shift from "Verifiable AI" (Lean 4) to State-Aware Cognitive Modeling. Prioritizing scalable mastery tracking over formal proof correctness.

Sep 2025

Pava Center FUEL Accelerator

Accepted into the JHU Pava Marie LaPere Center FUEL Accelerator with a <15% acceptance rate. Received a $5K stipend, weekly 1:1 strategic mentorship, and access to Johns Hopkins' entrepreneurial network.

2025 FUEL Cohort
Pava Center
Pava Marie LaPere Center for Entrepreneurship
May 2025

Research Foundation

CEO publishes "AI and Education: A Neurocognitive Perspective" at Johns Hopkins, establishing the scientific foundation for Altera's state-aware approach. The paper synthesizes research demonstrating a significant negative correlation between AI tool use and critical thinking (Gerlich, 2025).

Read Paper

Built by Altera Labs.

Our founding team has raised over $190,000 for previous ventures from NIH, NSF I-Corps, JHU, and more.

Peter Seelman

CEO

Peter Seelman

Johns Hopkins University

BS, Physics | BA, Mathematics

AI researcher with experience at JHU Applied Physics Lab (APL) and NASA. Expert in multi-agent AI systems and B2B customer discovery.

Alex Kroumov

CFO & Lead R&D

Alex Kroumov

Johns Hopkins University

BS/MSE, Biomedical Engineering | BS, Applied Mathematics & Statistics

JHU BME and Applied Math researcher specializing in learning outcome modeling, neurocognitive data analysis, and statistical validation of product efficacy.

Akira Lonske

CTO, Lead Developer

Akira Lonske

Johns Hopkins University

BS Computer Science | BS Applied Mathematics & Statistics

Former Amazon software engineer with expertise in full-stack development, AI systems, and rigorous software engineering practices.

Qiyue (Chris) Yao

Carey Strategic Venture Fellow

Qiyue (Chris) Yao

Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School

MS, Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence

Strategic advisor specializing in business analytics, AI applications, and commercialization strategy.

Advisory Board

Domain, institutional, and commercial validation from leading experts.

Dr. Emily Riehl

Dr. Emily Riehl

Associate Professor of Mathematics, JHU

Formal Verification & AI-Generated Math

Leading expert on mathlib and formal proof systems. Provides unmatched insight into competitor weaknesses in AI mathematics.

Dr. Richard Brown

Dr. Richard Brown

Dean of Undergraduate Studies, JHU Mathematics

Institutional Adoption & Procurement

Our "voice of the customer," guiding pricing, procurement strategy, and institutional adoption pathways.

Dr. Kobe Marshall-Stevens

Dr. Kobe Marshall-Stevens

Mathematics Faculty, JHU

Faculty Champion & Pilot Data

Primary Faculty Champion providing direct access to our pilot cohort and the ground-truth data to validate our BKT engine.

Jennifer Harvey

Jennifer Harvey

Global Developer Marketing Manager, Google

Go-To-Market & Developer Ecosystem

15+ year Google veteran who scaled developer communities and startup accelerator programs globally. Brings proven GTM playbooks and direct access to Google's developer and startup networks.

Iris Gupta

Iris Gupta

Founder & CEO, ProCounsel

FUEL Program Advisor

JHU CS & Economics alum. Bisciotti Award winner and founder of ProCounsel, an AI-powered legal discovery platform.