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Elena Sinel

teensinai

Contributions


About


 Teens In AI is an Acorn Aspirations' initiative and was launched at the UN AI for Good Global Summit in 2018.

It exists to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence.

We aim to democratise AI and create opportunities for underrepresented talent. We do this through a combination of:
  • expert mentoring 
  • talks and workshops 
  • hackathons, bootcamps and accelerators 
  • company tours
  • networking opportunities that give young people aged 12-18 early exposure to AI for social good.

Our vision is for AI to be developed by a diverse group of thinkers and doers, advancing AI for humanity’s benefit.

Teens in AI Africa aims to empower teenagers aged 12-19 across Africa into solving Africa's problems using artificial intelligence and data science. It was kicked off in Nairobi in August 2019 with support from Indaba Deep Learning, which took place in August 25-30 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Ober 50 teens (50% girls) had a chance to learn about AI for social good.

With over 70 applications received from teenagers and 200 applications received from mentors, Teens in AI Africa had 13 speakers, 7 judges, 60 teens and 40 mentors working in 8 teams addressing 3 UN SDGs: climate change, education, and health and wellbeing. Following the hackathon, Teens in AI will now run monthly meetups in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The target audience was introduced to data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence; and how they can leverage on design thinking with a combination of AI and ML to come up with solutions that face SDGs 3, 4 and 13. AI is gaining traction at a quicker pace, influencing the way we live and interact.

 The panel of judges included:
  1. Philip Thigo- Data Science Specialist
  2. Sarah Hooker - AI Resident, Google
  3. Shakir Mohamed - Research Scientist, Google Deepmind
  4. Jacqui W. Stewart - Head of Digital & Innovation at I&M Bank Ltd, Kenya
  5. Jade Abbott - Senior ML Engineer at Retro Rabbit
  6. Celina Lee - Co-Founder & CEO at Zindi Africa
  7. Marc Deisenroth - Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London
  8. Kevin Kavai - Developer at The Open Institute
 
 Teens in AI Africa vision:
  • Encouraging kids & teenagers across Africa to pursue computing and technology.
  • Introducing children into the field of data science
  • Encouraging teenagers to explore design thinking techniques to come up with solutions to common problems facing them and the society at large.
  • Introduce teenagers and children to ML and AI and help them understand this dynamic field.