This high-energy session is your front-row seat to the next wave of game-changing technologies, products, and services poised to transform the industry. Finalists will pitch their innovations live, aiming to win over a panel of sharp, no-nonsense judges—seasoned leaders who won't hold back on the tough questions.
You'll witness innovation in action, gain exclusive insight into emerging solutions, and see how creativity and disruption are driving real change in assessment. Whether you're scouting the next big thing or simply curious about what's next, this is the session you won't want to miss.
AITEM INC. Fast Pitch Title: Automating Creativity: AI-Driven Scenario-Based Item Development
Presenter: Sheng Li, Associate Professor, University of Virginia
AiTEM Studio is an AI-powered, multi-agent authoring platform designed to revolutionize how assessment content is created, reviewed, and managed. Unlike traditional item development tools that rely heavily on manual effort, AiTEM Studio uses a team of intelligent agents: Planning, Instruction, Item Generation, Style, Analysis, and Monitoring agents. These agents collaborate with human experts in producing scenario-based, high-quality, and psychometrically sound assessment items. Within the platform, subject matter experts can describe a target domain or competency area, and the system dynamically recommends topics, generates detailed instructional prompts, and produces realistic scenarios with corresponding items. Each agent contributes specialized expertise. For example, generating multimedia content, aligning items with blueprints and knowledge space, estimating item parameters, and identifying gaps in existing item banks. The workflow ensures human-in-the-loop quality control, allowing experts to accept, edit, or reject AI outputs while the system continuously learns from their feedback. In the testing industry, AiTEM Studio can assist across certification, licensure, K-12, and higher education to accelerate item development cycles, reduce costs, and ensure better alignment between items and performance standards. By automating the most time-intensive stages such as scenario generation, item drafting, style consistency, and metadata analysis, the platform enables assessment developers to focus on higher-level decisions and innovation. Ultimately, AiTEM Studio serves as a personalized AI co-pilot for test development teams, which aims to enhance productivity, content validity, and creativity in a secure, standards-aligned environment.
Global Certification PartnersFast Pitch Title: Global Certification Partners
Presenter: Sheetal Tiwari, Founder, Global Certification Partners Headshot
Global Certification Partners (GCP) supports certification and assessment organizations in positioning credentials as globally relevant, workforce-aligned products. We help certification bodies break long-standing silos and use credentials to bridge education and workforce needs. Our work is grounded in a deep understanding of how certification programs operate and scale, especially across borders.
As AI reshapes testing, learning, and hiring, GCP focuses on what technology alone cannot solve. This includes market readiness, cultural translation, governance-aligned innovation, and the role of the right partnerships. We help organizations assess realistic international opportunities and position credentials appropriately within new ecosystems. Quality, trust, and standards remain central to our approach.
GCP is distinct from traditional consulting models. We remain engaged beyond strategy and support structured market engagement and real-world adoption. Our work helps organizations enter new markets with clarity and strengthen the credibility, portability, and perceived value of their credentials among candidates, employers, and policymakers worldwide.
OpenEyes TechnologiesFast Pitch Title: OpenEyes Voiceover Intelligence
Presenter: Wade Delk, EVP, Government Service & Customer Success, OpenEyes Technologies
Our solution introduces a new examination modality where the candidate's voice becomes both the answer input and the security layer. Using advanced speech recognition, voice biometrics and multi-speaker detection, the platform allows test takers to speak their responses, while the system verifies identity continuously and detects potential impersonation attempts throughout the exam.
This enables fully accessible, hands-free assessments for candidates with visual, motor or learning challenges, while simultaneously reducing proctor burden and enhancing integrity in remote and hybrid testing environments. Responses are converted into structured, searchable text for streamlined scoring and auditing, including automated scoring for short-form questions.
We envision our product being widely adopted across the assessment ecosystem: high-stakes certification and licensure exams, government and education sector testing, remote proctored programs, and skill-based evaluations that rely on oral competency. By unlocking scalable, secure oral assessment capabilities, we help test publishers deliver exams with lower operational costs and stronger protection against impersonation.
Vantage LabsFast Pitch Title: From Assessment to Action: Using Generative AI to Transform Reports and Lesson Planning
Presenter: Paul Edelblut, Vice President, Global Operations, Vantage Labs
Generative AI is redefining how assessment data can be translated into meaningful instructional guidance. By leveraging both traditional generative approaches and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) models, our service transforms raw assessment results into comprehensive teacher reports. These reports do more than categorize students by strengths and weaknesses aligned to standards—they also generate evidence-based, research-supported lesson plans tailored to identified needs.
This integration bridges the long-standing gap between assessment and instruction, reducing the burden on educators while ensuring learners receive targeted, effective support. For the assessment industry, it represents a paradigm shift: moving beyond static score reporting to delivering actionable, instructional intelligence that directly improves teaching and learning outcomes.
Ada WooVice President, Innovative Learning and Assessment Solutions
As Vice President of Innovative Learning and Assessment Solutions at Ascend Learning, Dr. Ada Woo oversees the research and development of cutting-edge learning and assessment products. Her team ensures that all components of the organization's measurement and learning science expertise are efficiently integrated across Ascend's diverse product portfolio.
With a career spanning two decades in the assessment field, Dr. Woo brings a wealth of experience to her role. Before her tenure at Ascend, she served as chief of staff for ACTNext, the innovation arm of ACT, Inc., and as the director of measurement and testing at the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). Beyond her responsibilities at Ascend Learning, Ada is active in the education and technology community. She is an appointee of the Iowa Innovation Council, a state governmental body dedicated to fostering innovation within Iowa. At the national level, she has held chair positions in various committees for the National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME) and the Association of Test Publishers (ATP). Most recently, Ada was the 2025 chair of the ATP Global Board of Directors.
Dr. Woo earned her Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research delves into areas such as personalized learning, adaptive testing, technology-enhanced assessment, and the evaluation of 21st-century skills.
Andre AllenEVP, Operations & Technology, FifthTheory, LLC
Andre Allen brings more than three decades of expertise to the assessment and measurement industry. He started his career in 1989 at Reid Psychological Systems, a Chicago-based company specializing in employment assessments. Throughout his career, Andre has played an integral role in developing technologies that support HR professionals by enabling secure administration and scoring of assessments for organizations such as Pearson, PLC; Vangent, Inc.; and General Dynamics Information Technology. His innovative work has helped shape many of today's assessment delivery and scoring methods. Before taking on his current position, Andre successfully managed FifthTheory, LLC as its owner and CEO.
Today, Andre serves in multiple leadership roles, including Chief Business Officer at the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI) and board secretary for the Association of Test Publishers (ATP). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with a focus on project management, as well as an MBA specializing in information technology management from Capella University.
Rachel SchoenigFounder and CEO, Cornerstone Strategies
Rachel R. Watkins Schoenig, J.D., is CEO of Cornerstone Strategies, LLC ("Cornerstone"), a boutique association of professionals dedicated to serving the credentialing, education, and ed-tech industries. Cornerstone clients include high stakes healthcare, education, licensure and credentialing programs.
Rachel has supported ed-tech and testing programs with development of new products, go-to-market strategies, new AI tools and governance, and development of new forensics capabilities. She has led hundreds of investigations and designed defensible processes and models for incident response. Rachel recently served as Chief Science Officer for an innovative ed-tech platform and currently supports Duolingo as a member of their Test Security Advisory Board. Prior to founding Cornerstone in 2016, Rachel was Head of Test Security for ACT, Inc. where she leveraged her legal, international, and testing experience to improve exam security. Rachel has led development of new data forensics, redesigned security frameworks, developed an industry-leading program to deter impersonation testing, and designed innovative applications for use on personal devices, including a highly-rated facial recognition app.
Rachel is co-author of A Primer on Generative AI in Assessment and has hosted several AI workshops for credentialing and assessment programs. Additional publications include co-authoring a whitepaper on Compliant EU-US Data Transfers, co-chair of the ATP-NCTA Online Observation of Tests Standards and Best Practices, and co-author of the exam security chapter in the ATP-International Testing Commission Guidelines for Technology Based Assessments, the ATP-NCTA Proctoring Best Practices, a chapter in The Handbook on Test Security, and the ATP Workforce Credentialing Survey Report and Framework.
An active industry supporter, Rachel is a current member of the Board for the Council on Test Security and an executive committee member for the Conference on Test Security, a Board member for the Credential Integrity Action Alliance, an officer for the Association of Test Publisher's Test Security Committee and a member of the I.C.E. Advisory Panel for the Future of Credentialing Summit. She has also served as a past member of the Board of Trustees for ATP, as the ATP Innovations Conference Chair and Program Chair, chair of the Workforce Skills Credentialing Division, and chair of the Workforce Subcommittee for Security and Privacy. She has delivered many keynote presentations at conferences across the United States and has presented internationally. Rachel is a grateful two-time recipient of the President's Award for the National College Testing Association for her contributions to the industry.
Rachel is admitted to practice law in several jurisdictions. Before joining ACT, she led the legal department for Bandag, Incorporated, a publicly-traded company engaged in international franchising and manufacturing, where she oversaw and provided advice concerning mergers and acquisitions, compliance, litigation, and intellectual property matters, and later served as a corporate officer of Bridgestone-Bandag, LLC. She earned her J.D. summa cum laude from Drake University Law School and B.A. from St. Ambrose University.
Rachel is passionate about the assessment industry and the positive impact we can have on individual lives and communities. She considers it a privilege to serve others on their educational and career journeys.
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