Archive for category: Iridescent

Girls technology program reaches and empowers girls in new countries and communities in 2019

More than 7,200 girls from 57 countries around the world accepted our challenge to identify and solve real-world problems in their communities through technology and entrepreneurship, a 3% increase from 2018. Tackling problems including elder care, CO2 emissions, and more, their perseverance and success reflects the continued excitement and need for hands-on learning programs focused on empowering young girls with a desire to learn. This is felt through the passion and increasing participation of girls in countries like Mexico and Nigeria – where submitted apps increased 60% and 129%, respectively, from 2018 to 2019 – as well as strong submission numbers from the United States, Canada, India, and Kenya. And, a special shout out to Spain with the strongest submission numbers of all participating countries this year.

Right now I’m mentoring schoolgirls for @technovation and Its challenging task to lead students with less experience of programming. But now all effort looks worth when I see App is completed with all complex features. 🙂

— Pawan Mittal @ Adobe (@bemittal) April 20, 2019

Interestingly, this year girls completing the challenge were more technologically curious than past participants – more than 95 different programming platforms were used by teams to build their mobile apps including highly rated ones in industry according to Mashable. This indicates an interest in learning to use technology beyond what we offer in the curriculum. MIT’s App Inventor remains the most popular platform to create mobile apps, but Thunkable, a drag and drop mobile app builder for iOS and Android, experienced a 370% increase in submissions built using it compared to last year.

We hope the hard work, creativity, and technical skills the girls have built – combined with more than 23,000 girls across 115 countries who have participated in the Technovation program the previous eight years before them – inspire new girls in communities around the world to become the change they wish to see in the world.

In addition to virtual judging, teams of girls from around the world are participating in 50+ Regional Pitch Events throughout May and June as part of our quarterfinals. At the quarterfinals, the teams demo and pitch their apps and startups live to a panel of judges and event attendees. Following our online semifinals, the top 12 teams will find out they will be traveling to Silicon Valley for Technovation’s 9th World Pitch Summit the week of August 12.

I’m a judge for @technovation and am BLOWN AWAY by the talented #girls aged 10-18 all around the world who teamed up to build #apps and #startups that solve important problems. Looking forward to hiring some of these girls some day 🤩 #womeninstem #tech #technovation2019 pic.twitter.com/wNALIei5sv

— Kasley Killam (@KasleyKillam) May 5, 2019

This movement would not been possible without the support of more than 140 Regional Ambassadors, over 3,200 mentors running the programs, 83 student ambassadors, thousands of parents and families, and the dedication of Technovation sponsors including Adobe Foundation, Salesforce.org, Uber, Google.org, General Motors, Cisco, and numerous other supporters.

Thank you to all the amazing young women who are taking this journey with us this year – and especially the 15% who are returning after participating in previous seasons. You are all winners and world changers to us! And, thank you to everyone who makes this program not only memorable, but life-changing: For our girls, our communities, and our world. Learn how you can get involved.

Six Families From Bolivia, Palestine, Pakistan, Spain, The United States and Uzbekistan Win Awards For Using AI To Address Local Problems 

SANTA CLARA, CA; May 20, 2019: Iridescent, a global technology education nonprofit, today announced the winners of its debut AI Family Challenge World Championship, and an additional $500,000 in funding from Google.org. The championship event, hosted at Intel’s Santa Clara campus, was the culmination of Iridescent’s AI Family Challenge, in which 7,500 people from 13 countries participated in a 15-week program that brings together families, schools, communities and industry mentors to create AI projects that solve local problems.

The winning families came from all over the world, including Bolivia, Palestine, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, and their projects ranged from image-recognition software to help scan children’s drawings for signs of bullying to a wearable device for kids to use while swimming designed to prevent drowning.

Jeff Dean, a Google Senior Fellow and SVP for Google AI, announced the funding during his keynote address. The funds will support Iridescent’s ongoing AI Family Challenge program, which begins its second season in August.

“AI will only realize its potential to solve some of our biggest problems if we can introduce it to more people all over the world,” said Jeff Dean. “Organizations like Iridescent are vital to the long-term health of AI and prove that by bringing together families, community groups and industry leaders we can create real, lasting change.”

More than 200 families from eleven countries entered projects into the AI World Championship in two divisions: Junior (8-11 years-old) and Senior (12-16 years-old). Finalists then presented their projects to a panel of judges, who evaluated each entry based on ideation, project development, pitch and overall impression.

The winners are:

Junior Division:

• Technology Award: The Mayet Family, Pakistan, “Cavity Crusher” whose algorithm uses AI to monitor a child’s brush time and determine their oral health habits to notify parents accordingly
• Social Impact Award: The Vega-Hidalgo Family, Bolivia, “Duckweed Vacuum Cleaner” uses a camera to collect data for its image recognition algorithm aimed at detecting and vacuuming duckweed from Lake Titicaca
• Inspiration Award: The Rana Family, Palestine, “My Drawings Speak Up” uses image recognition technology to analyze children’s drawings and notify an adult when a child is facing bullying

Senior Division:

• Technology Award: Team De La Paz, United States, “Shoo” uses a live camera to collect images and pass them through an image recognition algorithm to determine if a dog is in a specified area. If an animal is present, the device emits a high pitched sound that deters it from staying.
• Social Impact Award: The Pifive Team, Spain, “Scoutbot Water Guardian” is a wearable device that uses an image analysis algorithm to determine if a swimmer is safe. If a person is at risk, the device will send a signal that emits a red light.
• Inspiration Award: The Innovators Team, Uzbekistan, “Spiky! Bullying Detector” is a mobile app that uses uses machine learning to analyze communications from a child to guess the probability of bullying. Spiky will send an alert to parents if action is needed.

The Rana Family also received the “People’s Choice Award,” the result of open voting from AI Family Challenge participants and supporters from all over the world leading up to the event.

The judges were Gabriela González, Deputy Director and Operations Manager at Intel Foundation; Eva Ho, General Partner at Fika Ventures; Brad Neuman, Technical Director, AI, Planning & Navigation, formerly at Anki; Michael Palmer, SVP of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data at U.S. Bank; and Allen Rush, Senior Fellow, Radeon Technologies Group at AMD.

“The AI Family Challenge aims to bridge the AI knowledge and confidence gap for children and adults around the world. These families prove that AI can be accessible to everyone,” said Tara Chklovski, founder and CEO of Iridescent. “We want to inspire more people to become lifelong learners, and we have many wonderful partners supporting that mission, providing not only financial support for the program, but also critical mentorship so children and adults alike can start to see themselves in future leadership roles.”

The AI Family Challenge partners with lifelong learning advocates and leading experts in AI, including those from Google.org, NVIDIA, Intel, and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. Learn more about this year’s finalists, the AI Family Challenge, and sign-up for season two here.

About Google.org

Google.org connects nonprofit innovators with Google resources to solve complex human challenges, and ensure that everyone can participate in the digital economy.

The same technology that makes our lives easier every day can also help solve some of the world’s largest problems.  That’s why we’re applying advanced technology to some of our greatest challenges, like using artificial intelligence to help predict natural disasters. Everyone should be able to participate in the digital economy, so we’re providing digital skills training for job seekers, supporting online safety and media literacy, and investing in computer science education for students — particularly in underrepresented communities. We know that the best answers often come from those closest to the problem. That’s why we join forces with nonprofit innovators, committing Google volunteers, technology, and over $200 million in grants every year to help scale their impact.

About Iridescent

Iridescent is a global technology education nonprofit organization that empowers underrepresented young people to become self-motivated learners, inventors, and leaders. Founded in 2006 by CEO Tara Chklovski, Iridescent has had more than 130,000 children, parents, mentors, and educators participate in its two global programs: Technovation, the world’s largest tech entrepreneurship program for girls, and the AI Family Challenge, a learning program that brings together families, schools, communities and industry mentors to solve real-world problems as they learn and create with artificial intelligence. To learn more, visit iridescentlearning.org

Media Contact

Puneet Sandhu
[email protected]
Bateman Group for Iridescent

###

Sample Family Challenge project:  Uses image recognition to spot forest fires as they start and alert authorities

Family building a hands-on project illustrating parallel processing

The world is changing dramatically as artificial intelligence (AI) is integrated into our society and work so rapidly that it is increasingly known as the 4th Industrial Revolution. Characterized by exponential rates of discovery and adoption, this revolution brings together digital, physical, and biological systems, and like the revolutions of the steam engine, electricity, and computers that preceded it, Artificial Intelligence will change our values as much as the ways we live. A shift of this magnitude will require a shift to a new economic system that accounts for basic human needs and well-being, and in turn it offers (if not demands) an immense opportunity for many different groups to be part of this movement.

Technologies such as AI are powerful tools that can unlock an individual’s potential and amplify a sense of agency and purpose. We not only need to learn more about AI, but also need to understand how to use it responsibly, and how we can improve AI technologies to create the world we wish to live in. To accomplish this, we must reimagine our approach to education.

Education needs to be seen as a lifelong journey everyone has the opportunity to pursue, and through which everyone can develop the skills needed to thrive tomorrow.

There is a need for grass-roots work with adults and children in the most vulnerable and underserved groups, to help them understand how their worlds are changing, what AI is, how some of these technologies work, and what role they can play, now and in the future.

There is a need for innovative, thoughtful, multi-generational programs that foster lifelong learning and knowledge sharing between local communities and AI experts from industry and academia.

There is a need for AI experts to work closely with media and journalists to help them demystify AI for the broader public. We need to move beyond inflammatory terms towards informed and critical debate that advances our understanding of AI’s impact on society and what needs to improve and how.

Finally, we need innovative programs and resources that help us understand the impact of AI technologies on ourselves, our brains, and our behaviors. This is where we need partnerships between bold, self-aware industry partners and neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, psychologists and educators, who can work together to design technology that is not only addictive, viral and lucrative, but also brings out the best of what humans are capable of.

Be part of the conversation about the best way to meet these needs. Submit a proposal to be part of the Education Track at the UN AI for Good Global Summit

Submit a proposal for the UN AI for Good Global Summit

Iridescent invites organizations to join in its efforts to fill important gaps in access, knowledge, agency and skills by submitting a proposal for consideration to present during the education track at the UN AI for Good Global Summit on May 29 in Geneva. Participants will also have the opportunity to be part of the working group developing the final projects launching at the end of the Summit.

Proposal submissions are due Monday, April 15, at 5p GST and should align to 1 of the 5 AI education focus areas:

• AI in your community: Have you been involved in any initiative that increases awareness of AI technologies in the broader public? Tell us about it! What worked, what didn’t work, what did you learn? How are you going to change your program or efforts this year to make deeper impact? We would love to hear from you!

• AI literacy in the workplace: Have you been developing or implementing any AI-literacy programs or courses in your organization for your employees or colleagues? We would love to hear what makes an engaging learning/teaching experience and your recommendations for helping people become more curious about AI. We also want to hear about any challenges that you may have encountered providing this experience at scale.

• Demystifying AI through media: It is a challenge for journalists (especially those without technical backgrounds) to investigate highly complex and rapidly evolving AI stories in a way that doesn’t focus on sensationalist headlines. We want to hear about organizations, journalists, schools, universities that are addressing this issue in innovative ways, and what is working.

• Our brains on AI-powered devices and games: Young or old, rich or poor, all across the world — we are all increasingly dependent on our smartphones, “daily feeds” from social media, and videogames. In particular the impact of such technologies is not understood/studied in underserved communities. We invite researchers, industry partners and community organizations to share any related work and findings that can help us all further our understanding of what is working, and what should be done next.

• AI for lifelong learning and creating capabilities: Today AI is powering many “personalized learning systems”. We need to move beyond factual knowledge, skill development, and assessment into preparing learners to become self-driven, creative problem solvers and innovators. We invite organizations and researchers that are working on this cutting-edge technology to share what systems they have created and deployed, lessons learned and recommendations on pushing this frontier!

Submitting organizations will be notified of their selection by Monday, April 22.

Join us as we explore ways we can collectively use and apply AI to improve education in an impactful, sustainable, and ethical way.

About the Track Organizers

Tara Chklovski, the CEO & Founder of global tech education nonprofit Iridescent, is chairing the education track at the UN’s AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. The track, titled “Reaching and Engaging 21st Century Learners” will explore how education organizations can creatively partner across industry, academia, media and policy makers to keep pace with the breathtaking advances in technology, particularly AI, to make the deepest impact in an agile, sustainable, and ethical way.