From the 10th-17th October 2020, Teens In AI ran their annual Ada Lovelace Hackathon in recognition of Ada Lovelace Day. This exciting event brought together students from all around the globe to develop innovative AI solutions to the most pressing healthcare and societal challenges facing the planet.
Attracting 130 enterprising young people from around the world, Teens in AI created an opportunity for young minds, aged 12-18, to join the wider AI and machine learning community from the safety of their homes. With 52% of participants being girls and 67% coming from a state school, participants tuned in from countries all over the world including the UK, US, Romania, Syria, Kazakhstan and India making this is one of their most global events so far.
Teens in AI encouraged and equipped young innovators to build solutions using data science and machine learning across a range of challenge areas. Hackathon participants addressed some of the most pressing challenges the world faces today, including climate change, the mental health crisis and education equality.
Throughout the hackathon, participants heard from some incredible speakers such as Harriet Green OBE, Former IBM Asia Pacific CEO & Chairman: Dr Fadji Maina, Earth Scientist at NASA: Renée Cummings, Criminologist, Criminal Psychologist and AI Ethicist and more. The inspiring judges were Gillian Lamela, Barclays, Sabin Muzaffar, Ananke Susana Duran, Sage Stefano Debolini, Sheridans, Kate Kallot, Nvidia and Helen Mullings, QuantumBlack.
Teens in AI created an opportunity for young minds, aged 12-18, to join the wider AI and machine learning community from the safety of their homes. With 52% of participants being girls and 67% coming from a state school, participants tuned in from countries all over the world including the UK, US, Romania, Syria, Kazakhstan and India making this is one of their most global events so far.
The hackathon hosted expert speakers and mentors who stood ready to inspire young minds in the fields of technology, design thinking, business and ethics. The mentors and speakers came from companies such as Amazon, IQVia, Nvidia, GSK and Quantum Black.
This year, Teens In AI partnered with Ananke’s Girl Summit to organise their Ada Lovelace Day Hackathon Demo Day. Ten teams will pitch the projects they developed during the hackathon on October 29th and winners will be given incredible industry prizes such as large cash sums, work experience and internship opportunities, the chance to pitch your ideas at large conferences and more
“Teens In AI is a movement committed to empowering the younger generation to solve real-world problems through AI and machine learning,” remarked Elena Sinel, Founder and CEO of Acorn Aspirations & Teens in AI. “Despite uncertainties across many sectors, young innovators will leave a significant impact on the future of the world. Now more than ever, we need to hear the younger generation and showcase their engagement and passion for technology to solve modern problems and challenges.”
In this incredibly uncertain time, Teens in AI and young innovators across the globe met the challenges of today’s unprecedented global environment and put their heads together to develop effective solutions to some of todays’ most pressing issues. Uniting to empower women and underrepresented groups in tech across the globe, this one-of-a-kind event welcomed and encouraged youth innovation and our next generation of societal leaders.
About Teens In AI
Teens In AI is an Acorn Aspirations initiative existing to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence. Aiming to democratize AI and create opportunities for underrepresented talent through a combination of expert mentoring, talks, workshops, hackathons, boot camps, accelerators, company tours, and networking opportunities, Teens In AI gives young people, aged 12-18, early exposure to AI for social good to develop a diverse group of thinkers and doers for humanity’s benefit. To learn more, please visit TeensInAI.com.
About Acorn Aspirations
Acorn Aspirations is a global teen tech accelerator for future digital leaders. An award-winning social impact company, Acorn Aspirations was a winner of the 2020 GLOMO Awards, CogX AI Innovation Awards, the Google Developers Launchpad Accelerator, and a MassChallenge Finalist. Since its inception in 2015, it grew from a single hackathon with 70 children to almost 6000 children through 20 Hackathons, 4 Accelerators, and 3 Bootcamps. Young people come from diverse income and ethnic backgrounds and have participated in programmes in the UK, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Denver, Texas, Poland, Romania, France, South Africa, Nairobi, Afghanistan, Brunei and Chile. Over 50% of the Acorn Aspirations community are girls.
To learn more, please visit AcornAspirations.com.
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