Immersive Experience: Aubrey Fudge's involvement in CEAT leads to numerous successes

Immersive Experience: Aubrey Fudge's involvement in CEAT leads to numerous successes

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | CEAT, Marketing and Communications Manager | 405-744-5831 | [email protected]

Creating innovative ways to solve meaningful problems is Aubrey Fudge's goal as a College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology student.

Fudge, a mechatronics and robotics major from Oklahoma City, has been involved with many activities and projects during her time at Oklahoma State University. She lived abroad in Germany while in high school, where she first had the idea for an immersive language learning platform.

She and Harrison Confer, a finance and accounting major in the Spears School of Business, co-founded Lingua, an immersive language-learning platform that earned the duo a spot in the finals for the Riata Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's Business Plan Competition.

Fudge has also been instrumental in the return of TEDx programs to OSU, as well as continuing to further her research base and gaining a growing understanding of interdisciplinary collaborations.

Revolution in language learning

Instead of repetitious memorization, the idea behind Lingua is to provide an immersive experience for the user to learn a new language. It is designed like a video game and features a chameleon who follows the user as they advance, changing colors when progress is made.

Fudge and Confer's success in the Riata Center competition gave them structure, mentorship and an audience to refine the platform and identify crucial business development elements.

The platform won first place in the Big City/High Tech category for Riata's Pitch and Poster competition in November and was a finalist in the Riata Business Plan Competition.

The spring semester was momentous for the team, as it secured funding to purchase equipment necessary to fully kickstart the platform's development.

"We're committed to making language learning and immersive experiences more accessible, preserving endangered languages and cultures, and delivering more efficient training methods for sectors like the military, international business and health care," Fudge said.

TEDx back at OSU

Fudge, along with Cristian Mendoza, a mechanical engineering and entrepreneurship student, worked diligently to bring TED programs back to OSU.

Through TEDx, a program designed to bring TED talks to different communities, OSU students can hear from speakers in many disciplines. Each speech that takes place at a TEDx conference is professionally filmed and posted on the TED YouTube channel, which has 26 million subscribers.

A passion project for Fudge, bringing these programs to OSU was demanding but taught her a great deal - it was a challenge she met head-on. Running and developing the program, on top of her course load, research and other interests, has taught her many valuable lessons on prioritization, time management and setting goals.

Her and Mendoza's efforts resulted in not only bringing in speakers to OSU but also providing a platform to amplify the voices of OSU faculty and students.

"This program offers an incredible and irrefutable offer for students: TEDxOkState is an opportunity for OSU students to promote their platforms, spread their stories and ideas, and fill their networks with CEOs, influencers and researchers," Fudge said.

Forging her future

Heading into her junior year in CEAT, Fudge has not only built on her technical skills, but she has learned how she thinks and leads.

She has expanded her goals for the future, having a deep desire to find a career defined by creating new solutions that challenge conventional thinking.

"I've learned that I don't want to just follow existing blueprints," Fudge said. "I want to find better, more efficient ways of doing things.

"My goal is to create solutions that improve people's lives, whether that's through making education more accessible, designing smarter systems, or building tools that bridge gaps across cultures and communities."

Story and Photos: Tanner Holubar | IMPACT Magazine