Bubamzi: An Intelligent Link Between Education, Play, and Skills

According to the Public Relations Office of the University of Tehran, this educational platform, known as Bubamzi, was developed under the supervision of Dr. Seyed Hossein Hosseini Nourzad, a faculty member at the College of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran, and with the support of the strategic Hatef Plan—a joint program between the University of Tehran and the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology. It marks a new step in the application of artificial intelligence in the fields of education and the humanities. This knowledge-based product, which has also received the UNESCO National Award, is not only a model for personalized learning in elementary education but also demonstrates the capacity of artificial intelligence to bring about transformation across all academic disciplines, from educational psychology and game design to data analytics and the knowledge-based economy.

Bubamzi is a comprehensive game-based learning platform for elementary school students that seeks to turn practice, review, and learning into an engaging, interactive, and meaningful experience. In Bubamzi, the teaching of academic concepts is interwoven with gamification, artificial intelligence, learning data analytics, and the cultivation of essential life skills, so that while learning and practicing lessons, students also develop skills such as thinking, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and life skills.

In the design of Bubamzi, play is not merely a tool for making education more attractive; the game world itself is part of the learning experience. For this reason, efforts have been made to shape Bubamzi’s environment around Iranian language, culture, and lived context. The naming of courses and games, characters and environments, stories, proverbs, and other cultural references, along with the visual design, have been selected in a coordinated manner so that the child encounters an integrated and meaningful world—a world that is familiar while also providing the opportunity for a learning experience in a context suited to Iranian culture.

The idea for Bubamzi began with an important issue in elementary education: How can the process of consolidating learning—which requires review, practice, and repetition—be transformed from a repetitive and tedious activity into an experience that a child continues with motivation? Bubamzi has found its answer in the combination of play, learning, and technology.

For students, this means a collection of interactive, level-based games accompanied by feedback and scoring, designed according to their age, level, and learning pace. For parents, Bubamzi provides the ability to track their child’s learning path. Analytical reports show the student’s status in various topics within each lesson, and data derived from their performance make it possible to follow their learning path and pace and to provide an experience better suited to each student’s circumstances.

In an evaluation of user experience conducted during Nowruz 1405, 79% of students considered Bubamzi games suited to their level, and 83% said they would like to continue using Bubamzi in the future. Among parents, 72% stated that Bubamzi helped them recognize their child’s strengths and areas for improvement. In addition, 83% of teachers believed that Bubamzi reports help them better understand students.

The platform has so far reached more than 20,000 users across the country and has received the UNESCO National Award in e-learning. Bubamzi has also received knowledge-based certification in the field of computer technology applications in the humanities.

Bubamzi’s participation in the Hatef Plan, alongside other selected projects in the field of artificial intelligence, has provided an opportunity to present the product’s achievements and to discuss its development, commercialization, and investment path.