Making AI Accessible for Young Learners

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Making AI Accessible for Young Learners

There’s so much opportunity for students to learn AI —  and it doesn’t have to be hard.

Learning AI sounds daunting and until recently, it’s been challenging for students to find enough guidance and support to build AI projects. There are great resources to help students learn coding languages, but how do students go from learning the basics of Python and Linux to building an autonomous robot (especially on a budget)?

Guidelines to build with AI should be accessible to all. After all — creativity and innovation happen when barriers are taken down, not added. The NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit is the ideal platform for learning, building, and teaching AI and helps to bridge that learning gap. 

Getting Started with AI

As the world changes and becomes more reliant on technology, recent graduates will be expected to have a basic understanding of what AI is and how it helps businesses grow. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that technology jobs will have the largest increase in demand over the next few decades. 

And as that demand increases, knowing engineering fundamentals can be an incredible asset to nab internships at your favorite tech company or provide a prerequisite to enter a hackathon. 

As a global leader in GPU-accelerated computing and AI, NVIDIA offers a free 8 hour hands-on class called Getting Started with AI on Jetson Nano, which is accessible globally and self-paced. Course-takers will receive a credit of completion once their first project has been submitted.  Upon completion, course takers get an NVIDIA DLI certificate to demonstrate their competency in AI and Deep Learning.

This course gives you step-by-step instructions and documentation that’s both simple to follow and bite-sized with several milestone projects along the way. Once completed, students have the tools and confidence to build their first object recognition AI project using deep learning on the NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit. 

Encouraging underserved and underrepresented groups to thrive in STEM starts with having an easily accessible platform to enable hands-on learning. 

Mission Accessible: Girls in AI 

According to a study by Microsoft, one of the major factors that contributes to girls losing interest in STEM careers is due to educators not implementing relatable and fun projects in their course work. 

Educators may find increased retention with young female students if course work focuses on engaging content, eliciting more interest in students. Jetbot, NVIDIA’s open-source robot based on NVIDIA Jetson Nano, is a great AI learning tool that educators could use to make AI fun and accessible. 

Open Source Community 

One of the best parts about becoming a maker developer is the sheer amount of awesome content available to draw inspiration from. Innovative and cutting-edge projects are being made everyday and this vibrant Jetson community is always willing to share. Spaces like Github or the Jetson Community Projects Page provide a playground for students to explore potential projects and learn from other community members. 

There’s content for every stage of your development journey, even for absolute beginners. An avid YouTuber, Paul McWhorter presents a whopping 62 tutorials for early developers wanting to learn about AI, machine learning, deep learning, and deep neural networks on the NVIDIA Jetson Nano platform.  

Inspire Students by Teaching Robotics

If you’re reading this as an educator, here are some helpful resources to get you prepared for the upcoming school year. 

Two AI certification tracks, complimented by free training videos, are available for educators, students and engineers looking to build their confidence in their AI skill set:

  • Jetson AI Specialist: This certification can be completed by anyone to demonstrate mastery of AI concepts using a hands-on, project-based assessment.
  • Jetson AI Ambassador: This certification is for educators and leaders at robotics institutions and recognizes competency in teaching AI on Jetson using a project-based assessment including an interview with the NVIDIA team.

There are also curriculum guidelines available for educators sculpting their own course. NVIDIA’s Jetson AI Ambassador, David Tseng, has created a hands-on Deep Learning Robotics Curriculum for High School. If you’re interested in AI education, follow David’s guidance on how to get the most from NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kits and implement fundamental deep learning and robotics into high school courses. 

Let’s shape the future of STEM education by motivating young people to free their imagination and reach their full creative potential with AI-based, hands-on projects. Register for Make: Education Forum where experts from NVIDIA will be discussing the future in STEM education. 

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
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Sarah Todd

Sarah Todd is a marketing manager for AI embedded solutions at NVIDIA. Having a special interest in driving applications in robotics and scaled software solutions, her mission is to make learning AI accessible to all.

View more articles by Sarah Todd

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