A successful pilot programme that has seen over 8,000 students in over 100 secondary schools across Ireland learn about machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) is set to be expanded in the coming school year.
The programme was trialled in Boherbue Comprehensive School in North Cork, where 25 transition year students took part. The students experienced a full immersive experience into the technologies that are giving the world self-driving cars, manufacturing robots, and they learned about the jobs of the future.
Speaking about the programme, Vera Leader, Principal of Boherbue Comprehensive School said: “Our school is in a rural area so computers and engineering are high on the local agenda – but this programme has opened our students’ eyes even more to the possibilities for artificial intelligence and machine learning. It has also challenged students in their thinking about what to study in 5th and 6th year and whether they should consider studying STEM subjects in college – this wouldn’t have happened without the programme. The structure of the programme meant that it was designed with both students and teachers in mind – so it has been very progressive and we look forward to offering the programme to students again next year.”
With the support of Huawei Ireland, the programme was developed by Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Research Training in Machine Learning (ML-Labs) based in University College Dublin (UCD) and Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin). The AI And ML module was developed by Joyce Mahon, an ML-Labs PhD student at UCD supervised by Brett Becker and Brian Mac Namee.
Michael Moynihan, TD for Cork North-West, said: “This course’s approach has helped students gain great insight into how AI actually works, to demystify and remove barriers to more advanced learning, and to emphasize the important roles of ethics and bias in AI. I’m delighted the Boherbue students have got such value from the module and I applaud Huawei Ireland and ML-Lab’s work in this area and intention to expand the course in the coming school year.”
The module contains lesson plans, presentations, videos, classwork, homework and solutions for teachers. In addition, code and accompanying instructional materials are provided, to introduce various machine learning algorithms if the teacher desires a more technical approach, with minimal setup, no specific software requirements, and no cost to participate. Students who successfully complete the course receive a Certificate of Completion from the TU Dublin research group.
Speaking about doing the course in Boherbue, transition year student, Charlotte Murphy, said: “This programme has been a great experience for me, and didn’t require any previous knowledge of coding so allowed me to get a grasp of the basics of AI and machine learning very quickly. It gave me a fresh perspective on the digital area and the relevance of STEM courses to the future world of technology. The insights and experience gained during the programme were invaluable.”
