Several of our High School students have spent the past 10 weeks undertaking a pre-college enrichment program that exposes and trains them in artificial intelligence (AI) through live online classes. The ‘Inspirit AI’ program was developed and taught exclusively by MIT and Stanford graduate students specializing in AI, who connected our students to a global network of trainers and fellow participants.
Our students began by taking a look at how AI is already present in so many components of our daily lives. They studied fundamental AI concepts, and how they play a part in various industries, such as data science, genomics, criminal justice, and even mental health.
In small groups, with their newly found international classmates, they were challenged to build a socially impactful project using their new knowledge. Grade 9 student, Justin, was very interested in the concept of computers learning from old data, creating new results from new data given. “I’m currently working on a music-recommending algorithm, with a team of 5 from Texas, Malaysia, and such. I enjoy working in groups and discussing with (my instructor) Joel about how to make computers learn and make new results.”
Minsung, Grade 11, chose ‘DNA Detectives’ as his project topic, tracing COVID-19 by applying AI to genomic data. “As someone who is interested in both computer science and biology, I am enjoying my project that involves a combination of those two,” he said.
Jong Won, also in Grade 11, worked in a group to create an AI program that detects and determines whether or not a person has pneumonia, using lung images. He commented, “I really learned a lot about
python languages and techniques, and I also got to know AIs and their different interpretations in society.”
‘Inspirit AI’ programs are now open for registration for Spring 2022.
