MSU receives $1.2 million NSF grant to promote AI competency among high school students
A Mississippi State interdisciplinary research team is receiving a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant to promote AI competency among high school students in the Magnolia State and prepare them for the workforce.
The three-year grant project will offer innovative, hands-on machine learning experiences to high school computer science teachers and students -- focusing on underrepresented populations in STEM and rural areas across the state.
The team is led by Principal Investigator Yan Sun, associate professor in MSU’s Department of Industrial Technology, Instructional Design, and Community College Leadership in the College of Education. Sun is joined by Project Coordinator Lisa Thomas from the same department and Department of Computer Science and Engineering Assistant Professors Jingdao Chen and Zhiqian Chen in the Bagley College of Engineering.
“AI is driving our nation’s economic development and reshaping future jobs and the workforce,” Sun said. “K-12 education is facing the challenge of developing students’ AI competency. Our project will utilize image classification and computer vision to provide meaningful learning contexts for both high school students and teachers’ professional development.”
The project, which includes 15 teachers and 60 students, is funded by the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program. MSU’s research team and undergraduate mentors will engage participants by preparing image data, training image models using machine learning and creating systems that can perform intelligent vision tasks. Each yearlong cohort of students and teachers can attend a summer camp at MSU and create a smart device each semester, culminating in a showcase the following summer.
“Most AI projects for K-12 students focus on AI concepts, but ours is unique because we want students not just to be consumers of AI but creators of intelligent solutions and contributors of AI fairness,” Sun said. “To achieve these learning goals, our project will engage students in hands-on experiences of devising intelligent computer vision systems; building awareness and knowledge of the limitations, vulnerability and biases in image classification models and computer vision applications; and exploring solutions for preventing or minimizing such vulnerabilities and biases.”
MSU’s College of Education is home to five academic departments, a division of education, one research unit and numerous service units. Learn more about the Department of Industrial Technology, Instructional Design, and Community College Leadership at www.educ.msstate.edu.
The Bagley College of Engineering is online at www.bagley.msstate.edu and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube at @msuengineering. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering is online at www.cse.msstate.edu and can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at @csemstate.
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Bethany Shipp | College of Education
