What it is: SymbolStory helps therapists, parents, and
caregivers build short visual stories (pictures and simple
text, page by page) that prepare children, including many on the autism
spectrum, for real moments: routines, transitions, feelings, and difficult
situations. Picture a calm, personalized picture book used as a
teaching aid.
How it works: The adult completes a
child profile (age, support level, interests, and the look of
the on-page character) and chooses a goal from six areas, for example social
skills, daily life, emotions, or sensory sensitivity. The system drafts a
multi-page story; a second step then creates
matching illustrations, keeping the same child-like figure on
each page. A cloud message queue hands work between parts of
the system so pages finish reliably. Text and images use
managed language and image services, with a backup provider if
the first is unavailable. Finished stories export to PDF or
editable documents; progress can be tracked; an optional
practice plan (steps, owners, dates) can sit beside the story.
Adults may also upload a photo to guide the art style.
Eugene’s role, R&D lead (volunteer, Aug 2023–present): Led
a six-person product team; built automated build and release
from zero (GitHub Actions to Azure); delivered
six-language interface support and new features in a focused
three-week cycle, covering hiring, onboarding, code review, mentoring,
day-to-day operations, and clear hand-offs between business stakeholders and
engineers.