Adolfo Gonzalez Mateo

When Adolfo Gonzalez Mateo moved from the Dominican Republic to the United States at age 4, he watched his mother struggle with complex documents while navigating a new language.

“That process was very stressful,” he says. “There were times I wanted to help, but I didn’t understand everything.”

Now a business major with a concentration in entrepreneurship, Gonzalez Mateo is working to solve that problem through Atlas, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered platform he built to translate, summarize and analyze documents, making complex information more accessible for users, particularly immigrants navigating legal or administrative systems.

“I want to leverage technology to help people in ways I wish I had growing up,” he says.

Users can upload documents to receive simplified summaries, identify potential scams and ask questions through an AI assistant trained to respond using only the document’s content. Gonzalez Mateo developed the platform himself, drawing on coding skills he began building in high school.

“The majority of it is self-taught,” he says. “I had to figure out how to extract the text, send it to the AI and then return something useful to the user.”

His work has already earned recognition on campus: At the Student Research and Community Engagement Symposium, he won the Manning School of Business’ Best Undergraduate Poster award for Atlas. He also entered it into the Rist DifferenceMaker competition.

A Haverhill resident, Gonzalez Mateo earned an associate degree in biology from Northern Essex Community College before transferring to UMass Lowell (UML). He soon switched majors from biology to business, as he realized his long-term goals aligned more closely with entrepreneurship.

“I see myself building things,” he says. “Business is where I can have the most impact.”

That mindset has already led him to launch multiple ventures, including a regional painting business and a mentorship program focused on discipline and personal development. He has also self-published a book, Built in Silence, reflecting on resilience and growth.

A first-generation college student, Gonzalez Mateo has taken advantage of opportunities to expand his perspective, including a Global Business Consulting course that took him to Lisbon, Portugal. He also spent a semester in Costa Rica studying medical Spanish, further shaping his interest in global challenges and access to resources.

Looking ahead, he plans to pursue an Master of Business Administration (MBA) while continuing to develop Atlas and other ventures.

“I just want to build something that actually helps people,” he says. “If I can do that, everything else will follow.”