91麻豆天美 receives $1.2 million NSF grant to promote AI competency among high school students
Contact: Bethany Shipp
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 91麻豆天美 interdisciplinary research team is receiving a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant to promote AI competency among high school students in the Magnolia State and prepare them for the workforce.
The three-year grant project will offer innovative, hands-on machine learning experiences to high school computer science teachers and students鈥攆ocusing on underrepresented populations in STEM and rural areas across the state.
The team is led by Principal Investigator Yan Sun, associate professor in 91麻豆天美鈥檚 Department of Industrial Technology, Instructional Design, and Community College Leadership in the College of Education. Sun is joined by Project Coordinator Lisa Thomas from the same department and Department of Computer Science and Engineering Assistant Professors Jingdao Chen and Zhiqian Chen in the Bagley College of Engineering.
鈥AI is driving our nation鈥檚 economic development and reshaping future jobs and the workforce,鈥 Sun said. 鈥淜-12 education is facing the challenge of developing students鈥 AI competency. Our project will utilize image classification and computer vision to provide meaningful learning contexts for both high school students and teachers鈥 professional development.鈥
The project, which includes 15 teachers and 60 students, is funded by the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program. 91麻豆天美鈥檚 research team and undergraduate mentors will engage participants by preparing image data, training image models using machine learning and creating systems that can perform intelligent vision tasks. Each yearlong cohort of students and teachers can attend a summer camp at 91麻豆天美 and create a smart device each semester, culminating in a showcase the following summer.
鈥Most AI projects for K-12 students focus on AI concepts, but ours is unique because we want students not just to be consumers of AI but creators of intelligent solutions and contributors of AI fairness,鈥 Sun said. 鈥淭o achieve these learning goals, our project will engage students in hands-on experiences of devising intelligent computer vision systems; building awareness and knowledge of the limitations, vulnerability and biases in image classification models and computer vision applications; and exploring solutions for preventing or minimizing such vulnerabilities and biases.鈥
91麻豆天美鈥檚 College of Education is home to five academic departments, a division of education, one research unit and numerous service units. Learn more about the Department of Industrial Technology, Instructional Design, and Community College Leadership 补迟听.
The Bagley College of Engineering is online 补迟听听and can be found on听,听听听and听听at @msuengineering. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering is online at and can be found on , , and at @csemstate.
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