Co-op students build new features to help bring innovative AI tool to market
By: Christie Zeb (she/her)
Waterloo co-op students play key roles in developing AI solutions from minimal viable products to serving 100,000+ global users.
GenText, a small Ontario-based company, has built a reputation for developing practical, high-impact software solutions. The company’s flagship product, GenText AI, is a Microsoft Word add-in that simplifies academic research and writing.
As it expands the product’s capabilities, GenText relies heavily on co-op students from Waterloo to drive innovation.
When Alex Charles (he/him) founded GenText, the team was just himself and a lead developer. As the company needed additional resources, Charles turned to students from the University of Waterloo's co-operative education program (co-op students). The company has since recruited several students from programs such as Systems Design Engineering and Computer Science.
Alex Charles, founder of GenText
The University of Waterloo’s co-op students tend to be very driven individuals. They may not have extensive experience, but their enthusiasm and willingness to learn on the job is what makes them invaluable. We’ve found that, more than anything, it’s their interest and drive that sets them apart.
Co-op contributions to GenText’s software evolution
Co-op students have contributed significantly to the development of the GenText AI-powered Word add-in, which generates accurate citations and finds relevant research papers for the user. Co-op students have played key roles in building out features that directly address user feedback and improve the software’s functionality.
For example, early versions of GenText software supported only English. However, after receiving user feedback from non-English speakers, a co-op student expanded the software's language capabilities. Today, the app supports 11 languages, including Arabic and Spanish, thanks to the efforts of Waterloo students.
Waterloo co-op students also built a new feature that integrates Semantic Scholar’s database into GenText. The new feature significantly enhances research efficiency by allowing users to directly access more than 200 million peer-reviewed articles.
“When we brought in our first co-op student, we only had a simple, minimum viable product on the market. Since then, with the help of Waterloo co-op students, we’ve added multi-language support and integrated APIs like Semantic Scholar. These features were developed almost entirely by our co-op students,” says Charles.
Staisha Neville, third-year Computer Engineering student
Staisha Neville (she/her), a third-year Computer Engineering student worked at GenText for two work terms. As a full-stack developer, she added multi-language support to increase accessibility for GenText users. She also implemented a new sign-in process that allows users to log in via Google or Microsoft accounts.
Neville also spearheaded the integration of Semantic Scholar’s database and led the development of two key features: citation and find research.
The features she’s developed allow users to analyze text in their documents and automatically find and cite relevant sources from research databases.
“My co-op experience at GenText AI was different from all my other co-op experiences. Within a smaller team, I had more freedom to take risks and try new things. I had the freedom to use my knowledge to decide how I would approach each task,” says Neville.
During her time at GenText, Neville worked on developing another product—Mental Note AI. Also a Microsoft Word add-in, Mental Note AI is designed for mental health professionals. It streamlines the creation of clinical reports and progress notes, making it easier for professionals to generate accurate, compliant documents in various clinical note formats.
Neville was responsible for implementing the document upload feature and ensuring compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy standards, a crucial component of healthcare technology. “In addition to developing the GenText AI and Mental Note AI apps, I maintained the existing codebase, fixing bugs and refactoring, when necessary,” says Neville.
Today, GenText’s products are used by more than 100,000 people worldwide, a success that Charles attributes in large part to the contributions of Waterloo co-op students. From the app’s earliest days to its current iteration, students have helped develop and refine key features that are now essential to the product’s global reach.
Every aspect of our software has been touched on by co-op students. These contributions underscore the valuable role that co-op students play in research and innovation, highlighting their potential to drive meaningful change in the world.