• "Grandpa, I can't find my school website," my eight-year-old granddaughter complained. 

It was spring 2020, and she had to learn from home because of the pandemic. She was smart and could learn anything, but learning from home on a computer and accessing the internet was something she had never done before, and now she needed it for school.

That night, I channeled decades of software engineering into something special—a digital companion that would guide her to her school websites and safeguard her assignments. A month later, I had her masterpiece ready. 

That's when I conceived the TilePAD View—a new user interface built from the ground up to be simple, safe, and secure for users of any age or level of experience. 

The screen had colorful pictures she knew—her school mascot, book characters, and symbols for different subjects. She could touch any picture and go right to that website.

"It's like magic!" she said, easily moving between her online classroom and homework. What I made to help her became a tool I wanted to share with everyone.

Sometimes our best ideas come from wanting to help the people we love most.