This is a "work in progress" doc and is constantly getting updated.
Please check this Hackathon Guide for more info on Challenges, Resources, Data Sets etc
Want to contribute to this guide or donate a resource? Email Elena Sinel on [email protected] with your suggestions
Want to sponsor the hack and join Deepmind and IBM at nurturing the next generation of AI technologist, innovators and entrepreneurs? Email Elena Sinel on [email protected] or Tabitha Goldstaub on [email protected]
MENTORS BRIEF¶
Teens in AI Hackathon - London Tech Week¶
Do you want to be challenged?
Join us on the mission to inspire teens to change the world through AI.
To celebrate London Tech Week, Founders4Schools, Teens in AI and CogX are running a Teens in AI Hackathon to inspire young people aged 11-18 into Artificial Intelligence.
We are on a mission to encourage young people to pursue computing and technology, and to promote diversity in this ever-growing field.
KEY DATES:¶
Teens in AI Hack runs from May 10-24 (Round 1) and through to June 10-12 (Final Round).
Round 1: Video pitch
Competition opens May 10, 2019
All videos must be submitted by 5 pm June 4th, 2019 by email to [email protected]
Regional Shortlisting: (10 finalist teams announced June 1, 2019)
Final Round: Finals Demo Day (June 10th and 12th at CogX)
10 June: Come and get inspired at Europe's largest festival for AI, CogX
12 June: Demo Day in front of Judges on Impact Stage at CogX - winners announced!
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!
Day 1 - AI, Now & Future (1 hour in total)
Speaker to introduce teens to AI - how is it changing the world? Why is it important?
Day 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
Day 3 - Ethics in AI (1-2 hrs)
See our Ethics in AI section and this Guide
Day 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:
- Introduction to AI Guide (PDF), Haron Shams, Students4AI (Imperial College London)
- Getting Started with Machine Learning Guide (A Teens Perspective) (PDF)
- Great Intro to AI Course - Harry Berg, Academy of AI (Imperial College London)
Day 5 - Business Models (1-2 hrs)
Please see our Business Models section and this Guide
Day 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 use Google actively for more inspiration and resources!!
Hear from a mentor...¶
“Being a Mentor at the #teensinAI hackathon, meant being there to support and accompany young people through a very intense weekend where they had to work collaboratively and think creatively with a group of girls they had never met before.
Our role as mentors is to remind them to make the most out of the experience, reminding them to have fun, but at the same time, encourage them to work to their fullest potential. We are there to make sure that the team dynamics are positive and that everyone is involved. It was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had.
Being able to support them to solve the problems they were encountering throughout the ideation, creation and delivery processes was an incredible experience. I think mentors and participants were able to learn from each other, and I am extremely proud of my team for being able to pull it through and deliver an outstanding pitch.”
- ENTREPRENEUR Leticia Galdón, Founder of Paz.ai
We Are Looking For:¶
Tech mentors, Design Thinkers, Ethicists and Entrepreneurs to help teams create their products in the FIRST ROUND of the competition - 10-24 May, 2019
TECH MENTORS
AI/ML developers. Any stack is suitable, but an appreciation of data science and machine learning is a bonus.
Teens usually have mixed experiences of coding - from none to expert. We teach them how to code in Python but some will know HTML and Java as taught at school.
At Teens in AI we are technology agnostic - our toolkit contains tools from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel and what not.
Please check this Hackathon Guide for more info on Challenges, Resources, Data Sets etc
When we need you: Please check with the school you signed up to volunteer at
Time Commitment:
Tech Mentors are expected to commit to a min of 4-5 hrs in total over a couple of days, where tech mentors can help teens identify a range of technologies available to teens to tackle a specific problem they want to tackle. If applicable, help source publicly available data sets, teach them how to prepare that data and use it to build a model. If they can and willing, they can continue to mentor the team in person or online via Skype or Slack
DESIGN THINKERS
If you have knowledge of human-centered AI, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), we need you.
In this role you will guide young participants in the design thinking processes following and during a workshop and help them choose the best prototyping tools for their product.
No code will be developed until a problem is researched and fully understood and your role would be to help them to agree on the challenge, define a clear problem by research and discussions and do market research to validate/invalidate assumptions.
Please check this Hackathon Guide for more info on Challenges, Resources, Data Sets etc
When we need you: Please check with the school you signed up to volunteer at
Time Commitment:
Design Thinkers to commit a minimum of 2-3 hrs in total over 1-2 days to help teams ideate, research and understand the problem, narrow it down and go through basic flow of design thinking process.
ETHICISTS
Ethics is important and should be taught alongside coding and computer science at school and at Uni - let's teach our kids how to develop code responsibly, shall we? And let's make sure the technology is only harnessed and used as a force for good.
Please check this Hackathon Guide for more info on Challenges, Resources, Data Sets etc
When we need you: Please check with the school you signed up to volunteer at
Time Commitment:
Ethicists to commit 1 -2 hrs in total to help teens identify possible problems with the tools they are developing and ask them many questions, as well as bring to light and debate some of the many case studies where technology went wrong and how it impacted individuals/societies etc (ex AI in gender, race discrimination, social media, recruitment, chatbots (Microsoft's TAI) etc)
ENTREPRENEURS
Some knowledge of business models, pitching and marketing - your expertise will be vital throughout the building process, particularly when teams will be finalising their pitch decks to post on Devpost for Round 1 judging (deadline 24 May) and getting ready for the demo and presentation in front of judges at Cogx2019 on 12 June.
When we need you: Please check with the school you signed up to volunteer at
Please check this Hackathon Guide for more info on Challenges, Resources, Data Sets etc
Time Commitment:
Business Coaches to commit 1.5-3 hrs in total to help teens think of innovative models, route to market and even plan an execution plan. They will also be required to help teens with their video pitches.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?¶
*** ALL mentors will receive FREE 3 Day, 2 Topics Passes to CogX2019!¶
****
Expect to learn¶
"The girls were very impressive. I work with digital marketing, software developers, traditional IT teams all day, every day and I thought these girls could teach us lot a thing or two!"
\ TECH MENTOR Arun Patel (Lead DevOps Engineer, Save The Children)
Read an article about one mentor’s experience:
Expect to be inspired¶
“Mentoring at the Teens in AI hackathon was an incredibly rewarding and inspirational experience!
It was amazing to watch the growth in confidence as the girls developed their ideas and turned to coding to bring them to life. I was so inspired by these young girls and what they were able to accomplish in such a short time, their ideas and solutions were truly inspiring. As a tech mentor, I provided advice, guidance and encouragement on how to work through the problems before using my insight in AI to support them when creating their solutions. As a young woman in a male-dominated industry, it was incredible to see so many teenage girls passionate about their career paths in STEM. It was an amazing experience that I can’t recommend enough – I can’t wait for the next one!”
\ TECH MENTOR Lily Marston (Associate Cloud Solutions Architect, Microsoft)
“I have been working with startups since the tech giants started up but I have never been so impressed by a team as the girls I mentored in Acorn Aspirations Girls in AI event. Their talent, teamwork, creativity and confidence was astonishing. It was my job to inspire them, but in reality, it was them who inspired me!”
\ DESIGN THINKER Jane Evans (Founder, Janee)
ARE YOU IN?¶
STEP 1: Sign up on https://www.founders4schools.org.uk/partners/teensinai/leader/
*** If you are a freelancer, student or not working in a company registered in Companies House, then when asked for "company" during sign up process on F4S platform choose "Acorn Aspirations Limited", mother company of Teens in AI.
STEP 2: You will receive an invitation to attend a mentoring session by a school via Founders4Schools platform.
STEP 3: Attend the event between 10-24 May. A school teacher will send you details about the event and your role in it.
You will be assigned to 1 or 2 teams of 4 or 5 teenagers aged 11-18 to support them and their projects during the days when you have signed up to help. This could be after school (4-5 pm) over a couple of days or more, but you could also split you help and offer a combination of in-person mentoring and online via Slack/Skype - it is really up to you to communicate with the teacher and agree what suits you and the schedule of events.
This is a volunteering opportunity and any fees associated with volunteering cannot be reimbursed.
By participating in our events you agree to comply to our Code of Conduct.
If you wish to volunteer, but are unable to attend in person, please join the Slack channel to offer help remotely: http://bit.ly/teensinaimentor
Rules to Follow:¶
Don’t friend teens on social media channels or take their phone numbers.
Don’t give out your personal information.
If you see any concerns, talk to the Child Welfare and Safety Officer at school
Avoid favoritism
Try not to patronise - teens don't like that!
Bring them down to earth if they are a tiny bit too ambitious for the time frame.
Remember you can’t do the project for the teens, you can only guide them in the right direction when they ask and you see they’re lost and provide them with support (including things like team work etc.)
If teens are not asking or accepting your advice, don’t take it personally. Remember that they will be ambitious and will want to do everything on their own.
Be prepared to be challenged as to your knowledge and programming skills - teens build chatbots, games, websites, identification programmes and write plenty of code in languages you may not be familiar with. Let them :)
More Info:¶
Event Details: http://bit.ly/teensinaicogx
Sign up to volunteer: https://www.founders4schools.org.uk/partners/teensinai/leader/
Join the Slack channel to help remotely: http://bit.ly/teensinaimentor
For further info email Elena on [email protected]