AI Is Taking Over Science Fairs

By: Barnas Monteith

With a blog title like this, I suppose there could be a lot of room for different interpretations here. But, for those of you who are worried, I don’t mean that a sentient robot from the future has come back in time to win this year’s ISEF (International Science & Engineering Fair) so that an alternate dimension could be created in order to save the human race from AI. But, with the way student science fair projects are evolving, this could very well happen. And I think that’s actually a good thing.

The Massachusetts State Science & Engineering Fair, held annually at MIT for 70 + years

 

 

 

 

 

What I’m really saying here is that science fairs around the world are increasingly being taken over by AI-related science projects. It’s no longer the case that the occasional algorithm-focused AI project is relegated to computer science or math category. Medical, physics, energy, environmental, chemistry and other subjects are now flooded with AI projects at an ever increasing pace. It’s happening at the regional and state level of science fairs as well as the International.

Last year, I did a quick study of the projects containing the terms artificial intelligence or machine learning at the middle school and high school international fairs. I presented the following data on this research at the AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence):

Monteith, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence 2019 Symposium

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

continue reading the rest of the article…https://medium.com/@barnasblog/ai-is-taking-over-science-fairs-8091181957b7