When attempting to acquire knowledge of novel scientific developments in STEM fields (such as physics, computer science, mathematics, etc.), non-scientists often find inaccessible the current pedagogical structure of technical presentations, insofar that: post-question Q&As often lack sufficient time for all questions and can intimidate curious non-specialists from publicly posing basic-level inquiries; and that presenters inevitably utilize some amount of esoteric technical jargon.

Minerva seeks to provide all audience members in technical presentations with an assistant that aids in understanding and contextualizing presentation content by using tools including (but not limited to): names and affiliations of authors, definitions of special terms and acronyms, and further resources for understanding recondite references and premises.