RET Site: Research Experience for Teachers in Interdisciplinary AI

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having an increasing impact on everyday life, from smart speakers and digital assistants to medical discoveries and judicial sentencing. Therefore, the ethical and social implications of AI technologies make it imperative that all citizens understand both the positive and negative impacts on the future of society. This new RET site at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) will provide research opportunities for high school teachers to deepen their understanding of the field of AI while developing materials to use in their classrooms. Teachers will be primarily recruited from high schools in districts serving students who are underrepresented in STEM and from low socio-economic backgrounds. The six-week summer program will include a two-week boot camp to prepare teachers to participate in an intensive AI research project across a range of applications. During the academic year, teachers will continue to engage with research faculty through monthly dinner seminars where they will exchange ideas and discuss the latest updates in AI research. The intellectual focus of this RET Site from UCSD is Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on the applications of Deep Learning. The high school computer science and math teachers, mostly from the Computer Science Teachers Association San Diego Chapter (CSTA SD), which is headquartered at UCSD, will participate in a two-week summer “boot camp”, followed by four weeks of intensive research with AI faculty and graduate students from Computer Science and Engineering, Cognitive Science, and Psychology. Additional objectives are to improve the ability of UCSD faculty to communicate ideas to the public through collaborating with and learning from teacher participants. The team also strives to use ideas from participants that can be incorporated into teaching UCSD AI systems. Finally, the main goal of the site is that teachers understand the ethical implications and current challenges of AI to promote awareness, discussion, and excitement among their students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.