Buddi : An Affective Computing Framework for Classroom Wellbeing and Neurodivergent Support
Authors: Harshit Bery et al.
Date: November 2025
Abstract
Student wellbeing is emerging as a critical factor in academic performance, emotional resilience, and classroom engagement—yet traditional approaches to mental health support remain reactive, stigmatized, and inaccessible to many learners, especially neurodivergent students.
This project proposes Buddi, an integrated digital ecosystem designed to proactively support emotional regulation and self-guided mental wellbeing through a playful, non-intrusive interface. Alongside its core wellbeing features, Buddi also functions as a lightweight, supportive chatting application, allowing students to interact with their companion in a conversational, low-pressure way that encourages expression and emotional reflection.
The system combines behavioral insights, soft gamification, and affect-aware interaction design to create an emotionally intelligent companion that grows and adapts with the user.
Buddi operates through four interconnected modules.
The Companion Core offers a virtual creature whose expressions, growth, and behavior reflect the user’s routines, emotional states, and engagement, encouraging self-awareness and consistent habits.
The Calm Kit provides ultra-short, sensory-friendly micro-interventions—such as guided breathing, grounding gestures, and expressive doodling—to help students regulate emotions without overwhelming them.
The EchoGarden module anonymously aggregates classroom mood inputs to generate a real-time emotional “weather map,” enabling teachers to identify stress patterns and respond empathetically without collecting invasive personal data.
Finally, the Focus Trails system gamifies productive behavior through soft, low-stimulation visuals that transform study sessions into evolving constellations and progress patterns.
Together, these components create a unified platform that prioritizes emotional safety, cognitive diversity, and accessible design. By including a built-in chat interface, Buddi reinforces emotional support by enabling students to communicate with their companion in a familiar, comforting format.
Buddi aims to foster healthier classrooms by reducing emotional overload, strengthening self-regulation skills, and empowering educators with actionable insights.
By merging wellbeing science with delightful interaction design, this solution offers a scalable, low-cost pathway toward more inclusive, emotionally intelligent learning environments.
Keywords: Affective Computing, Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), Ambient Sensing, Emotion Recognition, Neurodivergent Support Systems, Behavioral Analytics, Digital Therapeutics, Soft Gamification, Context-Aware Interfaces, Classroom Engagement Metrics, Micro-Intervention Design, User-Centered Design, Educational Technology, Adaptive Feedback Systems, Real-Time Mood Aggregation, Conversational Interfaces, Supportive Chat Applications
Introduction
In contemporary educational environments, student wellbeing has become a cornerstone of effective learning, yet it often remains under-addressed or inadequately supported. Traditional mental health initiatives in schools and universities are frequently reactive, one-size-fits-all, and may inadvertently stigmatize neurodivergent learners. As academic pressures rise, the need for proactive, inclusive, and emotionally intelligent interventions has never been more critical.
Neurodivergent students, including those with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and other cognitive differences, face unique challenges in self-regulation, sensory processing, and emotional awareness. Conventional strategies—such as counseling sessions, generic wellness programs, or rigid classroom routines—often fail to accommodate the diverse cognitive and emotional needs of these learners.
Buddi emerges as a holistic digital ecosystem designed to address these gaps by combining affective computing, ambient sensing, soft gamification, and a supportive chat-based interaction system to proactively nurture emotional resilience. The built-in chatting application allows students to interact with Buddi conversationally, encouraging expressive communication and low-stigma emotional check-ins.
Through its playful virtual companion, micro-intervention tools, real-time emotional feedback, conversational system, and gamified engagement modules, Buddi aims to create an accessible, low-stigma, and adaptive support system that grows with the learner.
By leveraging human-centered design principles, context-aware interactions, and data-informed behavioral analytics, Buddi empowers students to recognize, understand, and regulate their emotions, while simultaneously providing educators with actionable insights to foster inclusive, emotionally intelligent classroom environments.
Ultimately, this project situates itself at the intersection of educational technology, mental wellbeing, and neurodiversity support, offering a scalable pathway to transform classroom experiences into spaces of empathy, growth, and emotional safety.