***This is a "work in progress" doc and is constantly getting updated***

Dear Educator,

Thank you for signing up to participate at Teens in AI Hackathon, run in partnership with Folunders4Schools, CogX and Deepmind.

Not only will your students get a chance to be mentored by experts in AI, Design thinking, Ethics and Entrepreneurship, but they will be able to impact the world and help the United Nations address some of the problems highlighted by UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Below you will find a set of FAQs to help you navigate this competition.

For any further questions, please email Elena on [email protected]

Suggested Curriculum for the Hackathon

Ideally, at a minimum, we would like teens to have covered the following during school hours or after school. Suggested times may vary and depend on depends on everyone's enthusiasm!

Session 1 - AI, Now & Future (1 hour in total)

Speaker to introduce teens to AI - how is it changing the world? Why is it important?

Session 2 - Human-Centred Design (2 hours in total or more depending on how deeply your mentor wishes to dive into)

See our Human-Centred Design section below and this Guide

Session 3 - Ethics in AI (1-2 hrs)

See our Ethics in AI section and this Guide

Session 4 - AI & Machine Learning (Tech) (2-3 hrs or more depending on how deeply the mentor wishes to dive into and interest from teens)

Check our ML/AI section and the following in particular:

  1. Introduction to AI Guide (PDF), Haron Shams, Students4AI (Imperial College London)
  2. Getting Started with Machine Learning Guide (A Teens Perspective) (PDF)
  3. Great Intro to AI Course - Harry Berg, Academy of AI (Imperial College London)

Session 5 - Business Models (1-2 hrs)

Please see our Business Models section and this Guide

Session 6 - Video Pitch (1 hour)

Please see our Video Pitch section and this Guide

** Please see section on Datasets.

***If you feel something is missing in this guide, tell us and we will include it. Otherwise, do encourage teens to use Google actively for more inspiration and resources!!

FAQs for Educators:

What is a Hackathon?

Traditionally, hackathons are technology development marathons that draw on the talents and initiative of bright-minded volunteers –such as software developers, engineers, technologists, designers, scientists, and anyone with a passion and desire to have an immediate impact on the world.

Hackathons are open to anyone, and are focused on developing real solutions to global challenges by the end of the event.

Teens in AI Hack is a pilot project run over 2 weeks in partnership with Founders4Schools and CogX. It aims to inspire young people ages 11-18 into artificial intelligence and offer a chance to solve problems affecting humanity. At Teens in AI hackathons, young people lead the process and are guided by mentors to solve problems.

How do I enter a team?

  1. Create teams of 2-4 students - max 3 teams per school
  2. Host an event 10-4 June and invite mentors via Founders4Schools platform
  3. Submit videos by 5 pm 4 June by emailing Elena at [email protected]
  4. If your team is selected into 10 Finalist teams, it will be invited to CogX AI Festival for inspiration on Monday morning 10 June
  5. Teams can return to school and carry on building their projects with or without the help of mentors
  6. Teams will return to pitch live at Demo Day on 12 June 2-4.30 pm at CogX

What kind of mentors do I need to invite?

We have created comprehensive guides to guide you and mentors. If for whatever reason, you are unable to secure a mentor in specific expertise, DON'T PANIC - in our experience, teens are very resourceful and they will either Google or they will be bold enough to use LinkedIn, find a relevant mentor, connect with them and ask for help and take it to Twitter!

Tech Mentors - Full stack developers are great, but if they have expertise in Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, it would be a bonus (1 or 2, ideally)

Design Thinkers - one design thinker will be sufficient (Please see relevant guide in Hackathon Guide section on Human-Centred Design/Design Thinking)

Entrepreneur/Business Coach - someone to inspire and demystify business models

Ethicists - please see the guide on Ethics in AI. Ideally, everyone who learns to code should understand some basics of ethics and why it's important to code "responsibly"

Why should my students take part?

  • Get mentored by University Students from top universities, including UCL, Imperial, London Business School.
  • Get mentored by industry experts from across London’s top startups, scaleups and corporates
  • Workshops on AI & Machine Learning, covering topics such as AI - Now and Future, AI Ethics, Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning, Tensorflow, Design Thinking in AI Workshops focused on product strategy, business development and design thinking skills
  • Workshops to build their presentation and pitching skills
  • Motivational presentations by influential figures of the Tech Industry on AI and the opportunities it presents
  • An Opportunity to pitch & present MVPs to Judges from Industry
  • Opportunity to boost UCAS applications
  • Opportunity to get work experience in the best data science companies across London

****