We would like students to help us with creating and updating responses in our Covid chatbot "Auntie Betty by VIRA".

VIRA is a chatbot developed by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with experts from the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health and Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. VIRA’s knowledge base from Johns Hopkins vaccine scientists was developed with support from the COVID-19 Training Initiative, with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies. VIRA’s VaxChat technology is powered by IBM Technology.

The Chatbot has approximately 500 answers to various Covid related questions. As information is constantly changing, we will need to ensure that the answers are accurate based on Toronto specific guidance but also that any new issues are addressed by the chatbot.

To accomplish this, we expect the student(s) will:

• keep up to date on public health guidance related to Covid. This may include attending webinars organized by health partners, watching press conferences, reading health documents
• Use clear communication techniques to update chatbot response database
• Identify any trends in terms of chatbot use and suggest updates to the chatbot as needed
• Update links in response database so that they reflect the most recent guidance

Students will work closely with the founder who is supervising and available for questions. All interactions will be virtual. Check-ins will be done at least weekly. We will identify any press conferences/updates to health guidance that the student needs to be aware of. Students will also be provided access to Grammarly.

Students will be provided with support in developing their knowledge translation and clear communication skills. Responses will be reviewed by project partners prior to it being added to the response database.