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Michael Neumann 鈥�03, M.S. 鈥�08, Ph.D. 鈥�17 is using an unlikely tool to help high school students in Tanzania with their final examinations.

Call it Siri for the smartphoneless. Or an analog Alexa. Students in Tanzania can now get 鈥渙nline鈥� help for their high school final examinations without a smartphone or even internet access. All they need is a phone capable of receiving SMS texts.

Michael Neumann 鈥�03, M.S. 鈥�08, Ph.D. 鈥�17 first visited Tanzania as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 2004. He taught physics and math at Hagati Secondary in the village of Mapera in Mbinga. He loved the people of the village but noticed problems with the school. Most classes didn鈥檛 have textbooks. Some didn鈥檛 even have teachers.

鈥淭here was a decade they didn鈥檛 have a biology teacher,鈥� Neumann says. 鈥淭here was a Catholic high school nearby so they鈥檇 get the biology teacher to come by for a few weekends.鈥�

Not only was this a missed opportunity for students, but it made passing final exams nearly impossible鈥攁nd this wasn鈥檛 a unique problem. Students all across Tanzania were expected to pass four years of every subject, regardless if they ever had a teacher.

In November 2008, Neumann and some of his fellow volunteers launched TETEA (which means to speak out for someone in Swahili) to expand educational opportunities in Tanzania. TETEA鈥檚 first offering was an . Not just study guides but questions from past national examinations and links to helpful videos.

One problem: Only about 20 percent of the entire population of Tanzania have access to smartphones, much less an Internet connection at home.

So recently, TETEA expanded its resources to be available via SMS text鈥攁 technology first introduced in 1985 and one that is nearly ubiquitous in Tanzania. Students can send a text message to a phone number and TETEA will respond with the requested study materials. For example, a student could text 鈥淕ive me civics notes鈥� and TETEA will respond with a list of topics and subtopics to choose from. Once a student makes a choice, the notes are broken up and sent over two to three text messages.

The most popular feature, Neumann says, is a pop quiz function which sends a student multiple choice questions from past examinations via text.

鈥淭hey鈥檒l say 鈥楪ive me history questions鈥� and they鈥檒l pick a random question from the database and they鈥檒l answer A or B or whatever and it鈥檒l tell them if they got it right,鈥� Neumann says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really helpful because some of the questions pop back up, they repeat after a few years.鈥�

SMS also helps solve another problem: power. Only 15 to 20 percent of Tanzania is on grid electricity. An iPhone for example needs to be charged every day.

鈥淲hereas an old Nokia is good for three or four days,鈥� Neumann says. 鈥淪o, the SMS service can be used by pretty much everyone.鈥�

The impact of TETEA has been undeniable. The website had 700,000 unique users last year. Tanzania as a country has a high school population of only about 1.6 million. So, up to 43 percent of high school students in Tanzania accessed the website at least once. For context, only about 31 percent of Americans age 13 to 17 in the United States have Facebook accounts.

In addition to its educational resources, TETEA also mirrors the results website for national examinations, which helped expand the user base of TETEA. Since the national examination site often crashes when results are posted, students can come to TETEA鈥檚 website to see their results, and stay for the study guides.

Neumann handed off the day-to-day managing of the website to one of his partners but still helps TETEA track down study materials and develop new offerings. He鈥檚 currently working with Robbie Culkin 鈥�19 to develop a system where young people in Tanzania can access information from Wikipedia via its SMS system. Effectively, students will be able to text a word and TETEA would grab the summary from Wikipedia and send it back via text.

Neumann finished his Ph.D. in December 2017 and is considering a few options including post-docs. Mostly, he鈥檚 just looking for the next project where he can make an impact.

鈥淲ith TETEA the thing I like the best is looking up who鈥檚 using it, how many people are using it and from where,鈥� Neumann says. 鈥淭hat reach is pretty cool.鈥�