At AIClub, our students don't just learn AI. They use their learnings to conduct original research under the guidance of AIClub's talented Ph.D. mentors in our Research Program. Our students' research has won countless awards, including impressive results at this year's Junior Science and Humanities Symposium - a prestigious research conference for High Schoolers. In this blog, however, we honor the students who have gained acceptance into well-regarded academic conferences where they are often the only high schoolers presenting among Ph.D. students and university faculty.
How do High Schoolers get into Research?
In our experience, students can enter high school research as early as 9th grade. The key is to find an area of passion and interest, and a mentor who can help guide that interest to define a problem, a hypothesis and a research path.
How do you do a High School Research project?
Our students typically start with an area of interest. Then, with guidance from their mentor, they explore published research and data available on the topic. This helps them define a unique hypothesis which they can then explore via experimenting, data analysis, and prototyping. Once they have completed their experiments, frequently using the scientific method, they assemble their results into a written paper.
Can a High School student publish a Research Paper?
Absolutely. Please see the students below for inspiration. There are both high school and professional (academic) conferences where students can publish. We only recommend peer-reviewed and merit-driven publications and discourage pay-to-play publications. Mentors guide their students to suitable publication venues based on the topic, the fit, and the timeline. In general, the more experience the mentor has with publishing, the more they are able to guide the student. Our mentors have significant experience in research and publication.
Where can High Schoolers publish Research Papers?
There are many venues. Journals like Emerging Investigators cater exclusively to middle school and high school students and typically accept a large range of project topics. Professional conferences usually focus on specific topics or specific approaches (such as research using image data). Those wishing to target professional conferences can work with their mentors to find a good target fit. Acceptance to a reviewed conference or journal sends a strong signal that the work is high quality and rigorous, and demonstrates a significant accomplishment by the student.
Our highlighted students
The AIClub students who recently won accepts to prestigious professional AI conferences include:
The MDS Team (Meenakshi, Danika, and Shriya) - 9th grade
The MDS team made waves in 2021 with their project - CO2 Sensei - an app that helped business owners reopen safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. This team will also present their work at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) - COVID/AI Workshop later this month.
Ankita - 11th grade
Ankita has developed an innovative deep learning solution for distinguishing between Psoriasis and Eczema. She will present her research in August at the SPIE Workshop on Applications of Machine Learning 2022 in San Diego CA.
Hannah - 11th grade
Hannah has developed an AI to distinguish between correct and incorrect play of the violin. Her AI is able to detect issues in Rhythm, Tempo and Intonation in an audio recording of a piece of music - using a combination of audio spectral analysis and machine learning. Hannah will be presenting her research at the International Conference on Audio Signal Processing for Music Applications (ICASPMA) 2022.
If you are interested in pursuing high school research, please contact us at info@pyxeda.ai for a consultation.