A new social media platform intended to promote positive messages that was inspired by a West Virginia University faculty member will be launched in Morgantown at the College of Education and Human Services on March 3.

Named AhhaaWorld, the application’s creators hope it can help redefine human connections by enabling individuals to share their everyday stories and solutions that inspire, validate and facilitate heartening communication breakthroughs.

“The whole vision of creating this app was to create a global person-to-person real time inspiration engine. The process can allow people to create breakthroughs for each other, share stories, ideas, innovations and everything that we feel; this could be of great meaning to the life of someone else,” said Ashwin Srisailam, who founded the company last year along with Diane Bacchus-Quddus.

AhhaaWorld, a “we-more-than-me” mobile application, features a colorful, three-fold, easy-to-use format comprising of “vision boards,” similar to Pinterest on which users can compile both waves and inspiration. Individuals create waves – anything from photos, quotations, ideas, and even personal breakthroughs experienced in life – that they then share with others and tag themselves or their website. Once posted, the wave continues to circulate and inspire others.

“We really want people to leave a digital footprint of all the amazing work that they are doing; they can share it and have vision boards for every part of their lives,” Bacchus-Quddus said. “The users of Ahhaa can share themselves as a whole, not just for what they have done academically or what they have done for a specific company, but for who they are as a human being and what they are accomplishing.”

The two decided to launch AhhaaWorld at WVU on account of the inspiration by the life of CEHS professor Patricia Obenauf, who has dedicated her entire life to serving and helping human lives.

“It was the life within the Oneness University and One World Academy that prepared and inspired Ashwin to share his understanding and become of services to a much wider world,” said Obenauf, a longtime friend. “Ashwin found a person, Diane, in the projects and courses along the way who was ready to share his vision. Together they dreamed and brought forth Ahhaa.”

The AhhaaWorld, in turn, inspired Obenauf to share its intrinsic value with WVU students and faculty. Mountaineers will be the first representatives of an American institution to share their work in a local scope as a method of inspiration for other students on a much larger, global scale.

“We’ve had a wonderful journey with this college, everyone here has been so very kind. We feel as though it is opportune to launch the AhhaaWorld application from WVU,” Srisailamm said. “The kind of connection this college has with the rest of the state is beautiful and in the state itself we’ve seen that people wherever you go are very warm, so we are happy to be able to share this platform and its positive opportunities with West Virginia.”

Ahhaa maintains two key focuses on the United States and India, in which the platforms strives to utilize technology for the good of humankind. The application’s preferred target audience is age 12 and above, with hopes to one day integrate Ahhaa’s purpose to younger users.

The app will be launched at a “Tea @ 3” discussion series, sponsored by the CEHS Office for Diversity and Global Initiatives. The “Tea @ 3” will be held from 3-4 p.m. in Allen Hall, Room 802B.

“We are so happy to be a part of the Ahhaa inspirational network,” said Joy Saab, director of the Office of Diversity and Global Initiatives. “We believe in supporting a positive social media site, particularly in light of President (Gordon) Gee’s recent call for us to take responsibility in changing the culture at WVU. We hope to help spread the recognition and participation in this international network to enhance human potential.”

The Ahhaa application for iPhone is available in iTunes app store; an Android version is planned within the month.

For more information, contact Vilma Santana Eugui at vsantana.odgi@gmail.com. The event will also be available on the Internet at http://new.livestream.com/accounts/11162368/events/3828399.

-WVU-

cz/02/26/15

CONTACT: Christie Zachary; College of Education and Human Services
304.293.0224; christie.zachary@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.