Inspirit AI is a two week program taught by Stanford and MIT graduates for highschoolers seeking to broaden their horizons in computer science and its applications to artificial intelligence (AI). The program offers the unique opportunity to delve deep into AI, a topic for which few courses exist on a high school level.
Students spend the first week in groups of five, honing their programming skills with an instructor. An emphasis is placed on participation: each student is encouraged to engage in discussion and must share their screen at one point to explain their thought process in solving a challenge. As students’ knowledge develops beyond the writing of basic programs to include an understanding of convolutional neural networks and machine learning, they are empowered to participate in broader scale applications of AI in the real world.
By the end of the two weeks, the students have not only learned a wealth of programming techniques, but employed them in a project with a goal they choose for themselves and care about. Examples of such projects include AI scans to diagnose cancer, AI to exonerate the wrongly persecuted, and AI to create self-driving cars. To complete these projects, students may have written a program that scans x-rays for signs of cancer, a program that analyzes video evidence of a crime, or a program that helps navigate objects on the road.
During the course, students strengthen their programming skills, and thoroughly explore the real world applications of AI. Prior experience in computer programming or AI is not required to apply to the program, only a passion for it.
Bibliography:
- Inspirit AI: AI Taught by Stanford/MIT Alum For High School. (2021). Inspirit AI. Retrieved from https://www.inspiritai.com
- https://www.americanentrepreneurship.com/thumb.php?key=28&src=images/articles/072019/inspirit_353.jpg
- https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c70bcfc16b6403c514e5a3f/1602478574732-MTPZVSQ800LIL9EI538F/1_sKsVfwwKRxPhkAeUjfjtvw.jpeg?format=1000w