Zarrar Hassan

Zarrar Hassan is the founder of plain, an AI education company building the intelligence layer for education. Based in Beijing, he leads the company's product architecture, software engineering, and strategy, developing technology designed to help educational institutions understand how students learn, not simply record what they score. He is currently pursuing Mechatronics Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology, where he received a first-year full-tuition scholarship. Hassan's work brings together software engineering, artificial intelligence, and educational technology. Through plain, developed under MapleMinds, he has built a teacher-facing web platform and connected student mobile experience using React, React Native, Firebase, Cloud Functions, and AI-assisted asse ssment workflows. The platform connects instructional materials, Entry and Exit Cards, misconception identification, learning diagnostics, and personalized practice into a continuous system for understanding learning.

Rather than treating assessments as isolated measurements, plain uses evidence collected before and after instruction to help educators identify what students understand, where misunderstandings persist, and which areas require further attention. This approach forms the foundation of the Adaptive Learning Intelligence Engine, a proposed diagnostic architecture for which Hassan is the lead inventor on a filed US provisional patent application.

The company's development has progressed beyond an initial prototype into classroom validation. At Arizona State University, plain is undergoing an active pilot involving more than 60 students. A next-semester pilot is being prepared with Saudi Electronic University, while research collaboration with Jazan University is exploring pathways towards broader institutional adoption. plain was also selected for the Saudi National eLearning Center's AI Sandbox in Digital Learning, passed its technical review, and is preparing for the Pilot & Testing phase.

Hassan's work has received recognition across international education and entrepreneurship programs. At the 2026 International Competition on AI in Education, hosted by The Education University of Hong Kong, plain received the Excellence in Educational Impact Award after earning GCC Top 3 recognition and advancing to the international finals. In October 2026, plain received the Most Potential Award at Startup Alliance Venture Builders in Beijing, where 14 ventures participated in the concluding roadshow and five were recognized for an opportunity to advance towards ITEC.

His venture-development experience includes York University's YSpace Venture Catalyst, Italia360, th e YSpace Greater Bay Area Startup Sprint, and Toronto Metropolitan University's Startup Society inaugural cohort. These experiences have contributed to plain's development across product engineering, educational validation, commercialization, and institutional engagement.

Hassan's broader ambition extends beyond improving how assessments are created or graded. He believes the next major shift in education will be from systems that primarily deliver content and record performance to systems that continuously understand how learning develops. Starting with classroom assessment, he is building plain towards an institutional intelligence layer that can connect learning evidence across courses, students, and educational environments, giving educators clearer insight into what students understand and what should happen next.