OCAD University students Arian Shariaty and Eli Saghbini have won a New Talent award at the Spring 2025 UX Design Awards, presented by the International Design Center Berlin (IDZ). The IDZ is an independent German institution promoting design as a driver of business and social innovation.
Shariaty and Saghbini received the award for creating IntelliCourse, an AI-driven platform that generates personalized educational courses tailored to a learner’s unique needs.
Through user-driven prompts, IntelliCourse creates custom assignments, quizzes, presentations and detailed feedback to enhance engagement, continuous learning and micro-credential achievement.
The two students and their colleagues have been working on the startup project for the last 10 months. They say their ultimate goal is to democratize and personalize learning.
“Our mission was to design a platform that was not only functional, but intuitive,” says Saghbini in an introductory video. “Whether you’re a beginner exploring a new skill or someone fine-tuning your expertise … every element has been designed to provide the ultimate user experience.”
The duo are the only Canadian award-winners in the New Talent category. They were selected from a pool of 440 contenders representing 38 countries. Other recipients included post-secondary students from China, Germany, Italy and the United States.
