Viva preparation, grounded in your own thesis
inneedai helps you prepare for a viva by answering examiner-style questions from your own thesis. Upload your thesis, run a practice call with a supervisor or colleague asking the questions, and inneedai shows the answer your work supports, with the chapter or page it came from. It runs on Windows.
Why did you choose variational inference rather than standard MCMC for estimating posterior parameter variance?
In Chapter 3 (pp. 38–41), variational inference enabled linear scaling O(N) across our 2.4M-token dataset where MCMC suffered from autocorrelation time τ > 450. Empirical Bayes checks in Table 4 confirm posterior accuracy within 1.2%.
The desktop overlay during a viva examination, rebuilt from the app. Example question and answer.
Set up once, then take the call.
- 01
Upload your thesis
Add your thesis or paper as PDF or Word. It is indexed by section, so answers can say where in your work they came from.
- 02
Add the terms examiners will use
List your methods, key authors and specialist terms. Live transcription handles jargon much better when it has seen the words in advance.
- 03
Run a practice call
Ask a supervisor, colleague or friend to question you over Zoom or Teams. inneedai listens to their side through your computer's audio.
- 04
Check your answer against your thesis
Each answer cites the passage it argued from. Where you hesitated, you can see exactly which part of your own work to revisit.
Answers that cite your own work
A viva tests whether you can defend what you wrote. inneedai answers only from the thesis you attached, and the source chip shows the page or section, so you are rehearsing your argument and not someone else's.
- Your thesis or dissertation (PDF or Word)
- Published papers that form chapters
- Your notes on likely examiner questions
- A list of methods, authors and specialist terms
What the other side can see and hear.
No bot joins the call
inneedai captures your computer's audio output. Nothing is added to the attendee list and nothing is installed into Zoom, Teams or Meet.
Your microphone is never opened
Only the other side of the call is transcribed. What you say is not captured and not sent anywhere.
You decide what a screen share shows
Stealth mode, off by default, marks the overlay as protected content so a screen share does not include it. Without it, the overlay is visible like any other window.
The examination itself has rules
Most universities do not permit aids during the viva examination. Check your institution's regulations: they are the ones that count. inneedai is most useful in the weeks before, when you rehearse defending your work.
Viva preparation: common questions
How do I prepare for a PhD viva?
Re-read your thesis, list the questions examiners are likely to ask about your methods, contribution and limitations, and practise answering them out loud. Practice calls with a colleague are the closest thing to the real event. inneedai shows the answer your thesis supports for each question, with its source.
Can it answer questions about a specific chapter?
Yes. Answers are drawn from the most relevant passages of your thesis, and the source chip shows the page for a PDF, so you can go straight to the section.
Does it work for a master's viva or an oral exam?
Yes. Any oral defence of a written piece of work fits: upload the work and add the terms that will come up.
My thesis is very technical. Will it transcribe the terms correctly?
Add them as key terms when you set up the session. The site also suggests terms from your document automatically, which is where specialist vocabulary benefits most.
Is my thesis used to train AI models?
No. Your uploads are used only to answer your own sessions. The privacy policy names every third party involved in processing.
Try it on your next call.
Start on the free plan, then move up when you need more live hours. The app runs on Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit.