By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–Leonie and Lisette Kalra, 11-year-old twins, are happy to have won a state-level contest in the national Presidential AI Challenge for America’s Youth, but the first goal of their entry was to spread kindness.

The homeschooled Westport sisters got the idea for their Westport Smiles app (westportsmiles.org), which uses common objects to inspire human connections, when they noticed people spending too much time scrolling on their phones.

“We saw a lot of people looking on their phones and not interacting with other people and looking lonely,” Leonie said. “Being lonely is not fun at all.”

They created the platform with help from programs such as Streamlit and Open AI – and from one Professor Juju – their bespectacled, stuffed white poodle. He’s the one who walks site visitors through the process in the videos on the website.

The app is simple. Upload a photo of any common object – a book, a ball, even an old shoe – and click on the button that says “Kindness Starts Here.” The app will generate activities that you can engage in with another person, or group.

A book? Form a book club, or hold a book swap party. A globe? Make a game out of learning how to say “thank you” or “hello” in many languages.

A shoe? Take a walk with a neighbor who lives alone.

Their innovation won them the state middle school level champion in Track II of the competition, which grew out of President Donald J. Trump’s April 2025 executive order, “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth.”

The competition’s goal, says the challenge’s guidebook, is for “America’s young people to gain interest and expertise in AI technology from an early age, enabling America to maintain global dominance in this technological revolution for future generations.”

Track II requires participants to build an AI solution to a community challenge. (Track I participants propose a solution and describe it in detail, but need not build it.) 

The Kalras’ first attempt at Westport Smiles produced a platform with some bugs; it thought a shoe was a book. But an overhaul straightened out its cyberbrain and now it’s working. No matter what a user puts in, “it always manages to generate kind ideas,” Lisette said.

When the same photo is entered repeatedly, Westport Smiles continues to generate new ideas.

“It’s never exactly the same,” Leonie said.

The twins are waiting to hear the regional results of the competition, which are expected to be announced as early as Thursday and no later than May 1. Each winner at each level receives a Presidential Certificate of Achievement and access to special web-based resources provided by organizations investing in AI education.

The national championships will take place in Washington D.C. June 7 through 10. Prizes will be $10,000 for the winning elementary level team, and $10,000 per team member for the middle school, high school and educator levels.

Beyond the contest, the Kalra’s plan to expand their app into America Smiles (americasmiles.org) with hopes of easing the loneliness epidemic across the country.

The most important outcome?

“I just want to see people be kind to each other,” Lisette said.

Ken Valenti

^{_{A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.}}