Alumni of Alfaisal University’s AI Academy for Youth are working towards showcasing their projects in the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity, “Ibdaa 2022”. Alfaisal University’s AI Research Center hosted hybrid meetups for the AI Academy’s alumni to provide mentoring as they prepare their submissions for the national science & engineering competition, organized by Mawhiba Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
The AI Academy for youth is a pre-collegiate summer enrichment program that introduces high school students to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field through experiential learning and mentor-guided STEM projects. The AI Academy is one of the tracks in Alfaisal University’s Enrichment Programs (AUEP), directed by Dr. Dana Bakheet. The AI Academy is co-directed by Dr. Areej Al-Wabil and Eng. Ahmed Hamidalddin from the College of Engineering. The AI Academy hosted three program cycles in AUEP’s summer program in 2021, delivered in collaboration with the School of Engineering’s IEEE Student Chapter, a chartered student chapter of the IEEE professional society for engineering. At the end of each cycle, a cohort of the AI Academy’s alumni showcase their AI-driven projects in an exhibit held on-campus, a fitting end to what many of the AI Academy students described as a transformational experience.
With the rapid growth of AI technologies across sectors in Saudi Arabia, AI education is more important than ever. AI harbors the transformative power to address some of our society’s biggest challenges. It is especially important for youth to gain an understanding of AI’s widespread potential. Students enrolled in Alfaisal’s AI Academy receive personalized instruction to learn to apply AI to a socially impactful project in their field of interest such as healthcare, education, sustainability, and assistive technology. The AI Academy’s research projects allow students to enrich their academic experiences while learning to address the problems of the future.
Alfaisal University’s IEEE Student Chapter played an instrumental role in mentoring, co-teaching, and delivering hands-on physical computing workshops for high school students enrolled in the AI Academy during the summer. Student instructors included Haifa Alnashmi, Abdulmajeed Almarri, Sara Alhamdani, Jeeshan Sayed, Rama Alsaleh, Fahda Alzakari, Lian Alakeel, Abdullah Albeshr, Nouf AlAbdullatif, Latifa Alhqbani, and Nouf Farhoud along with volunteers from the IEEE Student Chapter (Alanoud Alqahtani, Albatool alqahtani, Aleah Alzakari, and Danya Alsadhan) and from the Engineering Students Association (Lama Alothman, Hessa Alderaibi).
