
March 2020 | ISE Magazine 49
are age 21 and older receive little support seeking jobs.
“The issue and bottleneck now is matching vocational
rehab centers to corporations themselves,” Reinhardt said.
“We want to create a larger ecosystem that requires more
than just matching but building a full work environment.”
The app seeks to divide applicants’ job options into four
categories of employment: People work, creative work, nu-
merical work and hands-on work. People jobs include cus-
tomer service, administrative assistants and jobs working
with animals. Creative jobs focus on marketing, designing
and writing, even for those on the spectrum with limited
social abilities. Numerical jobs include data analysis and soft-
ware work. Hands-on jobs include inventory, cleaning and
organizing, driving or working outdoors.
“We can bucket the jobs from data scientist all the way
down to cashier,” he said. “All jobs are viable options when
you’re dealing with a large, diverse group of people. They
can engage in what they are most interested in, select their
top four interests and (the app) directs how we match them
to roles.”
As of mid-January, Reinhardt and Kumar said 22 com-
panies had expressed interest in working with Mentra and
30 more were looking to join. The next steps are to gather
as much data as possible – “As IEs understand, you need un-
biased data,” Reinhardt said – continue to test the app and
apply for federal grants and private funding.
Since graduating, both Reinhardt and Kumar accepted
positions with Bank of America in Charlotte, North Caro-
lina, where they look to apply their research to help make
bank technology more accessible to people with disabilities.
Meanwhile, their work on Mentra continues with a research
team that includes Rishma Mendhakar, Sebastien La Duca
and Nandita Gupta.
Kumar’s efforts earned her the 2019 Student of Vision
Abie Award recognizing the use of technological innovation
to solve problems; it is given by the AnitaB.Org, a social
enterprise supporting women in technical fields. Her work
also persuaded her family to move from their home in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, to the United States to give Vikram
more access to technology-based services.
Eventually, the partners believe the idea of matching job
skills to employers could apply to people of all abilities look-
ing to hire or be hired.
“We’re focusing on diverse hiring, starting with under-
served communities and those with other disabilities,” Ku-
mar said. “Then we can scale to everyone to ideally replace
the standard processes of job-seeking. It can be more inclu-
sive and a lot more people-centered rather than employer-
centered.”
“We can put an emphasis on personal growth more than
navigating the recruiting process,” Reinhardt said. “Imagine
a world where the recruiting process matches jobs that are
good for you, taking into account all aspects of your person-
ality, leaving you time and space to grow in ways you want
to grow instead of spending so much energy in the recruiting
process.”
Keith Albertson is managing editor of ISE magazine.
Georgia Tech graduates Conner Reinhardt (left) and Jhillika
Kumar have developed an app designed to help people on the
autism spectrum find employment mentors and connect with job
opportunities that best fit their skills and preferences.
‘We’re creating a broader vision that every
autistic individual has the opportunity to find
useful employment. The way the brains of people
with autism work, they think outside the box in
unconventional ways. When employers notice
that, it is such a huge asset for the workforce
to see individuals as valuable.’
– Jhillika Kumar
If you’ve been involved in a project that put solutions to the test in a real-
world environment, it could be a potential Case Study article. Send your
idea to Managing Editor Keith Albertson at kalbertson@iise.org and we’ll
give it consideration.
Do you have a Case Study to share?
Photo courtesy of Lance Davies | Georgia Tech
More about Mentra
To learn more about Mentra, visit the website, www.mentra.me.
You can watch Jhillika Kumar’s TEDx GeorgiaTechSalon
presentation, “Accessibility at the Forefront of Design,” at
http://bit.ly/2KW20rJ.