I remember when the field of artificial intelligence (AI) was considered a buzzword for automating mundane tasks, before the days of ChatGPT and Midjourney.
Perhaps it wasn’t seen as cutting edge among my colleagues. In my first year at Nanyang Technological University (NYP) in 2020, most of the tech bodies were mostly related to app development and cybersecurity.
AI could not force students to want to start a group of like-minded individuals.
Simply put, there wasn’t much interest in AI interest groups.
But as a 19-year-old dedicated to the pursuit of AI and machine learning, I knew this was a field that was exploding in popularity as well as importance.
The human mind is extremely complex, and it is a great achievement for medical science to be able to understand its mechanism. The next limit was the ability of machines to replicate how our brains work.
The possibilities are endless as people begin to take advantage of tools like ChatGPT.
So, encouraged by my instructors who taught me to be innovative and think outside the box, I had the wild idea of starting an AI interest group in New York City.
To be honest, I was a little worried that I didn’t have enough content to share with people joining this group, or that my technical knowledge of AI was still limited. rice field.
Little did I expect that the biggest challenge in forming a cohort of interested students was not machines, but trying to decipher human connections.
How my passion for AI began
Ever since I was a child, I have always been interested in technology and artificial intelligence (AI), influenced by my father, who has a degree in computer science.
And as a family, we bonded over sci-fi movies and series like The Matrix and Black Mirror, and listened intently to technological advancements on the news.
Things like the “Smart Nation Initiative” launched by the government in 2014 don’t get much talk among my contemporaries, but my father, brother and I had a heated discussion about it.
Our dinner talks often revolved around how the latest technology changes our daily interactions and experiences.
We will discuss and discuss the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on robotics, the latest advances in machine learning, and an exciting future when machines begin to spot patterns and predict human behavior.
As I grew up, my brother, who was studying for his diploma in cybersecurity and digital forensics at the New York City Graduate School of Information Technology, kept my interest piqued through daily after-school summaries.
I still remember these conversations as they played a formative role in my childhood.
Quench your thirst for knowledge
But one open question remained: how do we begin to teach inanimate machines to understand the world and make autonomous decisions, perhaps beyond human intelligence?
So, in search of an answer, one Thursday afternoon, while waiting for my O-level results, I went to the library and borrowed a book from Packt Publishing entitled Machine Learning Fundamentals.
Reading this book was the revelation that sparked my passion for the AI field. It was also helpful to have more exposure to technology through programming LEGO Mindstorms and creating games using the Alice programming environment.
However, my thirst for knowledge and the influence of my father and brother made me want to pursue a career in information technology. So I followed in my brother’s footsteps at New York University and got an IT education at New York University that gave me the rigorous academic experience I wanted.
All in all, the NYP IT Diploma Program certainly exceeded all my expectations.
I was empowered to explore my interests and develop them further through opportunities such as competitions, internships, and extracurricular programs. You could always feel his passion for the subject from his slides and lectures, and he always responded to my every quip about the industry.
It was also their encouragement that made me decide to start an AI interest group at school for other like-minded students.
Polytechnic Industry’s First AI Interest Group
But the first few months were the hardest.
My first task: I had to learn how to write proposals, pitch ideas, and convince others that learning AI was a worthwhile endeavor.
How can you sum up this huge train of thought in one sentence? Why would anyone be convinced to join this? Where can I find members to join the executive committee?
Besides that, there were many worries and questions swirling in my head.
There were readily available online resources and how-to guides, but many of them were difficult for beginners to follow.
I wanted to create content from scratch that would resonate with my colleagues and seniors from the perspective of a normal polytechnic student.
I was happy that my family was very supportive when I shared this idea, and my father and brother gave me valuable advice.
Especially my brother, who also started a interest group at the NYP. He taught me the basics from organizational structure to proposal writing.
Even more helpful was having my classmates and instructors by my side, giving me the feedback I needed, and participating in brainstorming sessions on my proposal, which I had to revise three times before submitting it to school. That was what they did.
In June 2020, NYP AI was launched as the first AI interest group among all polytechnics in Singapore.
understand relationships
But the challenge didn’t stop there, we had to ensure the productivity of the group and meet the goals set by the executive committee and myself.
I still remember our first event vividly. It was a “beginner’s” project using AI to predict house prices. I spent hours creating the slides and rehearsing them over and over to make sure everyone understood my sharing.
I quickly realized that my teaching style could be overwhelming and confusing for some participants.
At some point I thought I was not cut out for teaching. I was too blunt and too serious to be a teacher.
But as the NYP AI committee team grew and received feedback from more attendees, I learned creative ways to inject interactivity into the event.
Engaging students was also a hurdle we had to work on. We relied heavily on word of mouth, blogs, school-wide emails, and social media for promotion.
But that wasn’t enough. No increase in numbers was seen.
That’s too bad. We put a lot of effort into creating content, but we wanted to reach more students. Was NYP AI too niche, or were we just not fit to run interest groups?
Our recognition has increased as we have adapted our teaching style to something more approachable. Our frequent events have definitely increased our visibility.
It grew from 30 members to 150 members in 3 years and continues to grow.
As we adapted to problems and found new solutions, I realized that this is exactly what I love about AI and machine learning.
Learning from experience is at the core of AI, and my experience has come full circle. My growth as an individual unraveling the unknowns in human relationships mirrored my growth as a machine in understanding the world.
What’s my biggest takeaway? Letting go of fear. This is the core hurdle of any passion project. Even if you fall, you will fall forward, so do the job.
If I didn’t take the leap of faith, NYP AI would have remained just a vision, but if I gave in to fear and doubt, it wouldn’t have become a reality.
Looking back, this project was a humbling and meaningful experience for me. Witnessing “Ah!” of classmates. The moment they finally understand the concept of AI is enough to put a smile on my face. Doing so will make it worth going down that road.
About the author:
Alex Chien is 19 years old and a graduate of Nanyang Technological University IT School with Diploma in Information Technology. He was also awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Prize in Mathematics and Science for his outstanding achievements at his recent graduation ceremony.
