How to Demystify AI in the Classroom – Iridescent and NVIDIA at SXSWEDU

Classrooms today are no strangers to coding or robotics―but few classrooms in the US currently teach artificial intelligence, despite AI being applied across almost every industry. Seeing this need developing, in 2017 Iridescent teamed up with NVIDIA to develop a curriculum that would demystify AI for youth, teaching them real-world ways AI can be used for good and introducing them directly to AI tools they can use themselves.

Iridescent CEO Tara Chklovski and Joe Bungo, Deep Learning Institute Program Manager at NVIDIA, recently had the opportunity to discuss this collaboration and share what we’ve learned in the first year of running the AI Family Challenge at SXSWEDU.

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Iridescent Announces Finalists of Debut AI World Championship

Out Of 200 Submissions, Six Families From Bolivia, Palestine, Pakistan, Spain, The United States and Uzbekistan Selected To Present Their AI Projects To Judges In Silicon Valley


Today we are proud to announce the finalists of our inaugural AI World Championship. The championship is the culmination of the AI Family Challenge, a twelve-month global learning program that brings together families, schools, communities and industry mentors so participants can learn, create and play with AI. 7,500 people from 13 countries participated in the first year of the program.

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Engineers who mentor families: Exploring Artificial Intelligence in Coimbatore, India

It’s National Engineers Week! National Engineers Week is an opportunity to celebrate engineers and their work. In particular, we like to focus on celebrating the amazing engineers who mentor students and families and share their passion and expertise with learners around the world.

Meet Vigneshwer, a data scientist in Coimbatore, India. Vigneshwer volunteered as a mentor for the AI Family Challenge this year, where he worked with local students and their families and taught them about artificial intelligence. Inspired to help people move beyond seeing AI as a “black box they’re not really familiar with” to understanding the ways AI is a tool they can use to make their lives better, Vigneshwar guided families through hands-on projects and lessons about AI concepts and tools, and hoped that they would also tap into their curiosity to keep learning beyond the program.

“You need to learn continuously…that’s the most important thing as a human that you need to do.”

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STEM SUPERHEROES: Meet Ms. Moreno, the 4th grade teacher changing the way parents see technology

112th Street STEAM Academy is an elementary school located in one of the poorest areas of Los Angeles. For most of its 50 year history, 112th Street has been a typical public elementary school, but faced the additional challenges that come with serving an area affected by generational poverty and disenfranchisement. The school recently became a STEAM Academy – which means they’re committed to aligning their curriculum to state and national science standards, closely engaging science teachers, and are eligible for additional funding for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) programs.

We’re proud to be working with 112th Street Academy this year as part of the AI Family Challenge. Led by Criss Moreno, a 4th grade science teacher at 112th Street, the AI Family program is very popular at the school, an achievement in itself, as Ms. Moreno told us that the school struggles with parent engagement. Generally, at events or activities targeted at parents she would see the same 10 parents over and over again. For the AI Family Challenge, however, Ms. Moreno recruited 20 families, all of whom have been actively engaged – “it’s the best parent turnout we’ve had. We never get that many parents in a room.”

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