← Back to Home
FUNDED PROJECTUW iSchool Grant — $500Spring 2026

PAMA

Collaborative, AI-powered biography platform that turns scattered family memories into a cohesive life story

Bhagyashree Vaidya (INFO '26) & Sunayana Hazarika (MSIM '26)

The Problem

Families lose irreplaceable stories every day. When a loved one passes, different family members hold different pieces of their life but there's no structured way to bring it all together.

Research shows emotional memories lose specificity within 2–3 years, and the window to capture them is smaller than families realize.

2–3 yrs

Before emotional memories lose specificity

Scattered

Memories spread across family members

No Tool

No structured way to bring it all together

Who It Serves

Memory Keepers

Adults 35–55

Want to preserve a loved one's full story before it fades. They're the organizers — gathering siblings, parents, friends to contribute what they remember.

Legacy Builders

Adults 55–70

Want to document their own legacy for future generations. They're telling their story in their own words, while they still can.

The Solution

1

Create a Shared Story Page

A family creates a dedicated page for a loved one — a single place for their complete life story.

2

Invite Contributors

Siblings, friends, colleagues — everyone who holds a piece of the story gets invited to contribute memories, photos, and anecdotes in their own words.

3

AI Organizes Everything

PAMA's AI organizes every contribution chronologically and thematically into a cohesive, lasting biography — preserved forever.

Not a memorial tribute. Not a social media post.

A complete life story, told by the people who actually knew them.

Recognition

W

UW iSchool Startup Grant

Spring 2026 · Health & Wellness Category

Awarded $500 grant as one of eight projects selected in the Spring 2026 cohort. Recognized for innovative application of AI to a deeply human problem.

View on UW iSchool Website ↗
startup.ischool.uw.edu/grants/Open ↗
PAMA project listed on UW iSchool Startup Grants page — Bhagyashree Vaidya (INFO '26) highlighted
Live — startup.ischool.uw.edu/grants/Open ↗

Product Thinking

User research first: Identified two distinct personas with different motivations but a shared need for structured memory preservation

AI as organizer, not creator: The AI doesn't fabricate memories — it structures and connects contributions from real people, preserving authenticity

Collaborative by design: Multi-contributor model solves the fragmentation problem — no single person holds the complete story

Time-sensitive market: The 2–3 year memory decay window creates natural urgency and a clear activation trigger

Interested in PAMA or want to discuss the product?

Get in Touch