This is why middle school CS is a vital step in the path of a comprehensive K-12 CS education!
Brittany Wegner, 17, took the grand prize in this year’s Google Science Fair using artificial intelligence she first learned about in 7th grade. Wenger started building artificial intelligence systems in the middle school after studying the future of technology for a school project. Her contest entry was a cloud-based neural network to accurately assess tissue samples for signs of breast cancer.
“I came across artificial intelligence and was just enthralled. I went home the next day and bought a programming book and decided that was what I was going to teach myself to do,” she said.
“I taught the computer how to diagnose breast cancer,” Brittany Wenger, told reporter John Roach.
“And this is really important because currently the least invasive form of biopsy is actually the least conclusive, so a lot of doctors can’t use them.”
For her Google Science Fair project, she built a neural network with Java and then deployed it to the cloud. She ran 7.6 million trials on it and found it is 99.1 percent sensitive to malignancy. She hopes to refine her program to detect other types of cancer.
Read the complete article at http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/17-year-old-girl-builds-artificial-brain-detect-breast-cancer-908308#/technology/futureoftech/google-built-machine-learns-find-cats-internet-846690.
Share it with your students, parents.
Print a copy for the counselors, and administrators.
Point out a goal of the Level 2 Curriculum: “Learning opportunities should be presented in ways that are active, connected, and relevant to them, and should promote the perception of themselves as proactive and empowered problem solvers, creators, and innovators capable of changing the world.” (CSTA K-12 CS Standards, csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CurrFiles/CSTA_K-12_CSS.pdf, page 15.)
For slightly older students, take a look at the topic #5 in the Exploring CS curriculum: “Computing and Data Analysis. In this unit students explore how computing has facilitated new methods of managing and interpreting data. Students will use computers to translate, process and visualize data in order to find patterns and test hypotheses. Students will work with a variety of large data sets that illustrate how widespread access to data and information facilitates identification of problems. Students will collect and generate their own data related to local community issues and discuss appropriate methods for data collection and aggregation of data necessary to support making a case or facilitating a discovery.” (Exploring Computer Science, www.exploringcs.org/curriculum.)
Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice
