Now, thanks to a recent $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, MSU is offering more than standards and guidance. Researchers at MSU are partnering with 15 high school teachers for a hands-on extracurricular program intended to teach students to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to build smart devices and analyze digital images, according to a news release last week.
Throughout the school year, a cohort of 60 students in the program will have opportunities to prepare image data, train machine learning models and develop systems capable of performing intelligent vision tasks, or analyzing digital images. As described by the online learning platform DataCamp, AI image analysis has broad applications, including identifying diseases from medical images, finding objects in satellite images and locating objects for self-driving cars to avoid.
Students and teachers in MSU's program will have the opportunity to attend a summer camp, create a smart device with image analysis capabilities each semester, then showcase their work the next summer.
“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,” Yan Sun, who is leading the project, said in a public statement. “To 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.”
The NSF grant funds the program for the next three years, but according to the project abstract, it aims to create resources for educators everywhere for a more lasting impact. MSU researchers will track data on student learning outcomes and get feedback from students on the program’s effectiveness, which they will use to create high school AI/ML curriculum and teaching guides for a large audience of STEM educators.
Mississippi’s investment in computer science education is part of a growing trend. Code.org’s 2024 State of Computer Science Education report, published last month, counts 11 states that require computer science for high school graduation. Many state education departments haven't been shy about pointing out the need for computer and information technology professionals — in 2021, the Mississippi Department of Education noted more than 2,100 open computing jobs in the state.
“AI is driving our nation’s economic development and reshaping future jobs and the workforce,” Sun said in a public statement. “K-12 education is facing the challenge of developing students’ AI competency. Our project will utilize image classification and computer vision to provide meaningful learning contexts for both high school students and teachers’ professional development.”
