In partnership with AAAI-18, the Thirty-Second Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Friday February 2, 2018, 2:00-6:00 PM, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, New Orleans Louisiana
Yolanda Gil, University of Southern California, Tara Chklovski, Rusty Nye, Allison Colyer, Iridescent
AI is not new in the research world, but for the public, suddenly the topic of AI is everywhere. The perception of AI driven machines can be negative and fear-based. As a result, there are real risks that the value of the technology is not understood, and of negative consumer and regulatory backlash. This perception is more prevalent in underserved communities who lack access to high quality STEM education. With 50% of children in the US belonging to minority groups in two years, there is a real danger that the “digital divide” could widen further into an “AI divide.”
But, we also have a unique opportunity to play this right from the very start. As researchers, we can actively share the problems we tackle with the broader public, and give them a glimpse into what AI really is – and how AI can strengthen our communities and societies.
Join our tutorial at AAAI 2018
This tutorial will be a fun, hands-on, team-based experience in which you will work in teams, learn how to take complex topics, abstract concepts and develop tangible, open-ended, hands-on design challenges that will help people develop an intuitive understanding of the same concepts. For instance, students can be challenged to build a physical sorting machine that processes different types of physical materials in parallel. This gives them an intuitive understanding of parallel processing. Or they could develop a circuits-signals game that gives them an intuitive understanding of how autonomous vehicles process signals.
The workshop will be led by Iridescent — a global engineering and technology education nonprofit, that has been supported by Google, NVIDIA, GM, Adobe, Salesforce to bring cutting-edge technologies to underserved communities across the US and worldwide.
Students learning about Neural Networks
A parallel processing network!
Circuit-game with a human computer
“People think I’m a genius for understanding Reynolds number on such a fundamental level, but really, I know it because I taught it to a bunch of 4th graders.”
– Madeline Foster, Graduate Student UC Berkeley
Following the workshop, on Saturday, you will have the unique opportunity to take an exciting field trip to a local New Orleans school, and practice your newly acquired skills of story telling with underserved students and parents. You will be invited to inspire them with your personal story and connection to AI, and help them develop a deeper understanding of some fundamental AI concepts.
This will be the very first time AI researchers will communicate cutting-edge concepts in hands-on ways with hundreds of underserved children and parents!
