AI4ALL expands to offer 11 summer programs

  • AI4ALL News
AI4ALL expands to offer 11 summer programs

Editor’s note: This story updated on March 26, 2019 to reflect the addition of the University of Michigan as a summer 2019 AI4ALL site.


“This camp has helped me figure out what I’m passionate about and realize that I truly can make a great contribution to this world.” — AI4ALL 2018 student

“[AI4ALL’s summer program is] the best opportunity to meet passionate people who are and will be leading the future of AI and the world.” — AI4ALL 2018 student

Identifying misleading news headlines. Using self-driving cars to empower aging folks. Directing relief efforts during natural disasters based on real-time updates from disaster victims. These are the kinds of issues high schoolers used AI to tackle in AI4ALL summer programs last year. When students can see themselves in roles they might never have imagined, they make different choices about their individual paths. By learning about AI as a tool to achieve their goals and tackle new challenges, students expand their future opportunities.

That’s why AI4ALL is pleased to be doubling the number of seats in our AI summer education programs by launching 4 new programs for summer 2019. Our 11 programs will educate over 300 high school students from around the world in 2019, with a goal of reaching students from areas without consistent access to AI education opportunities. New program sites include:

These programs will run alongside AI4ALL’s existing programs at Boston UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityPrinceton UniversitySimon Fraser UniversityStanford University, and UC Berkeley. Each program will work to diversify AI by lowering the barriers to succeed in AI for underrepresented students in grades 9–12 through peer support, exposure to role models in the field, and a focus on tangible applications for AI that can solve problems within students’ own communities.

AI4ALL Summer Programs for 2019

AI4ALL summer programs are run in collaboration with AI researchers at the universities where our programs are located. The core curriculum for each program is developed by in-house AI and education experts at AI4ALL, reviewed by leading AI researchers, and tested with high schoolers learning at top AI institutions around the world. Each university contributes hands-on group projects that highlight the unique research strengths of their university — projects range from using AI to reduce hospital-acquired infections to using AI to help direct aid during a natural disaster to detecting security concerns on Internet of Things (IoT) device networks.

Once students complete their AI4ALL summer program, they are invited to join AI4ALL’s alumni community called Changemakers in AI. Through Changemakers in AI, alumni have access to a lifetime of academic and professional support, an engaged peer community, and specialized research and job opportunities.

AI4ALL summer education programs are open to underrepresented high school students. Learn more about specific program requirements and access applications by going to the participating universities’ AI4ALL program websites. Get an overview of all AI4ALL summer programs and find links to each program here. Keep an eye on our TwitterFacebook, and Instagram for student quotes, interviews with the AI researchers leading our summer programs, and more over the coming weeks at the hashtag #AI4ALL19.

Learn more about our summer programs here.


New AI4ALL Advisory Board members join

Alongside our new summer programs, AI4ALL is proud to announce the addition of two new members to our Advisory Board: Kay Firth-Butterfield, the Head of AI and Machine Learning at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and Hina Baloch, Head, Global Social Impact and STEM Education at General Motors. AI4ALL’s advisory board brings a diversity of perspectives into the development and direction of the organization.

Kay Firth-Butterfield, WEF, AI4ALL Advisory Board member

Firth-Butterfield leads AI and Machine Learning at WEF’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Through her position there, as vice-chair of IEEE Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, and through other leadership in AI and ethics, Firth-Butterfield brings a global perspective and strong track record of AI ethics leadership to AI4ALL’s Advisory Board.

“I am very excited to join the advisory board of AI4ALL,” Firth-Butterfield shared. “Diversity in the creation of AI tools is of the utmost importance and, currently the women in AI across the world number only 23%. With AI being one of the most important technologies of our future the time to act to ensure that women have equal opportunities in the future is now. This is even more necessary in the developing world and I look forward to helping the team grow our work globally.”

Hina Baloch, GM, AI4ALL Advisory Board member

At GM, Hina Baloch develops and implements strategic direction for GM’s global STEM initiatives. Baloch brings this experience with global STEM initiatives to her seat on AI4ALL’s advisory board, where she will provide guidance and share her perspective with the AI4ALL team. On the occasion of joining AI4ALL’s advisory board, Hina said, “AI4ALL is doing critical work to ensure that a diversity of viewpoints and voices are included in the AI field. This is important, not only because it makes it possible for more creative solutions to be developed, but also because it broadens the scope of problems that AI is used to address. I’m proud to support this work, and I look forward to providing additional guidance through AI4ALL’s Advisory Board.”

Baloch and Firth-Butterfield join the AI4ALL Advisory Board alongside existing members Jeff Wong (Global Chief Innovation Officer, EY), Lili Cheng (Corporate Vice President of Microsoft AI and Research, Microsoft), Danny Guillory (Head of Global Diversity and Inclusion, Autodesk), Jensen Huang (Founder, President and CEO, NVIDIA), Lili Gangas (Chief Technology Community Officer, Kapor Center for Social Impact), Laurie Yoler (Board of Directors, Zoox and Computer History Museum), Rodney Sampson (Executive Chairman and CEO, TechSquare Labs), Ashley Still (Vice President and General Manager of Adobe Document Cloud & Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise, Adobe), Dr. Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College), and Tom Kalil (Chief Innovation Officer, Schmidt Futures).


Applications for many of AI4ALL’s summer programs are open now. For more information, visit our website, sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on TwitterInstagram, or Facebook.


About AI4ALL

AI4ALL is an Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit that opens doors to the artificial intelligence industry for underrepresented talent through education and mentorship. We nurture a global community of students who learn AI fundamentals, then apply those principles to solve society’s most pressing problems in deeply innovative and ethical ways. By telling a new story about who can be a maker in AI, we’re creating tomorrow’s AI leaders and changing technology’s future. AI4ALL has received funding from Melinda Gates/Pivotal Ventures, Jensen and Lori Huang, Google.org, Microsoft, Autodesk, and The Micron Foundation, among others.

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