At AIClub, we are always proud to see our students grow in their capabilities, not just in AI and technology, but by solving problems and engaging with their communities.
Shriya has been taking classes with AIClub for several years. She has applied her learnings to various projects, from building an AI to detect breast cancer to assisting the deaf by recognizing American sign language. Shriya recently shared her Smart Waste Sorter project with a Computer Science class at Oakland’s Unity High School - invited by their Computer Science teacher.
The Smart Waste Sorter project combines Raspberry PI, Python code, and a Deep Learning AI built on Tensorflow running in the Amazon Cloud (AWS). The sensor detects motion and captures pictures of the object in front of it. These pictures are then sent to an AI which will detect whether the item is recyclable or not. The buzzer then warns the user if they are about to put into the recycling bin something that is not recyclable.
Why learn, create, and mentor?
Shriya’s journey is a great example of what we have seen other students do, as well as what we encourage all our students to do - which is learn, create, and mentor.
Learning
Shriya started her journey by taking the AI Basics for Middle Schoolers course. There she learned about AI and built her first AI project. She then followed by taking both the M series and the PA series of courses, the most recent of which is PA5 - Natural Language Processing. She also took the IOS class series and learned how to build AI powered mobile apps and took our self paced IOT classes to learn how to connect Arduino and AI.
Creating
During this time, as her understanding of AI grew, she was able to create projects to solve problems that she cared about.
Her first success was winning the North American Junior Regional award in the Technovation AI Challenge - where she partnered with a team of other girls to build the first Smart Waste Sorter to detect between batteries and flimsy plastic - two items known to cause blockages and fires in recycling plants when users accidentally throw them into recycling.
Her second success was winning her local STEM fair with her deep learning project to detect breast cancer. With this project - she demonstrated her ability to apply her AI learnings to many fields, ranging from environment to medicine
Her third success was her Deep Learning project to help the deaf by building AI technology to detect American Sign Language from video, winning her a science fair award.
She then returned to her first Smart Waste Sorter project, improving it using Raspberry Pi. The second Smart Waste Sorter won a special award from the IEEE.
Her journey with AIClub also helped her find project partners. Team CO2 Sensei - which included two other AIClub students, helps businesses open safely after COVID-19. CO2 Sensei has a published app in the apple app store, and has won several awards, including the Grand Prize at Technovation Girls and National Winner at ProjectCSGirls.
Mentor
Shriya - now among our most advanced and elite students - is part of several initiatives where she can research, create and mentor.
As part of our AIClub Launchpad accelerator program, Shriya and a select group of AIClub students explore advanced topics in AI, technology and the intersection of AI, research and entrepreneurship. Students work on projects of their choice, individually or with other Launchpad team members.
Shriya has also given back to the community, as we see in this presentation to Unity High. By showing other students what she has accomplished, she has demonstrated leadership and further contributed to her community.
Through her journey, Shriya has demonstrated that she is an emerging leader. We expect that she will continue to learn, create and mentor as she goes to college and beyond.
You can find Shriya's presentation at Unity High below:
Congratulations Shriya!