Announcing the NeurIPS 2022 High School Outreach Program
by Jessica Forde, Matthew Wang
Quick Summary: NeurIPS is creating a new high-school outreach day in New Orleans on Monday, Nov 28. Our vision is to empower students to engage with AI and how it impacts their lives. Get involved!
Hello! We’re Jessica and Matt, the outreach co-chairs for NeurIPS 2022. We’d like to introduce our plan for the new high-school outreach program at this year’s conference!
Why outreach? First proposed by Mary Ellen Perry, the vision for the outreach program is to broaden participation in machine learning and artificial intelligence by engaging with students early. We want to make this a community partnership; in particular, engaging youth early to show how AI is used in society and how it impacts lives.
With community leaders in New Orleans, we’re organizing a day for high school students to engage with AI and its impact on their lives, with a keynote, participating in hands-on workshops, experiencing discussion spaces, talks, and more!
However, we can’t do this alone – we need your help! We’re recruiting NeurIPS volunteers for various responsibilities, from running hands-on workshops to leading groups of students to just talking to kids! Read on for more on what we’re doing and how you can get involved!
Our Vision
NeurIPS plans to invite high school classes to visit the conference for a packed schedule, including attending:
- workshops where students explore how AI affects their lives in a hands-on manner
- talks from the AI community
- social spaces for students to engage with mentors from the NeurIPS community
Throughout our planning process, we will be partnering with members of the New Orleans community. We recognize that we don’t have all the answers. Our job as co-chairs is to create a program that benefits students first – and that involves bringing educators, community leaders, and students to the table.
Get Involved!
There are all sorts of ways to get involved – scaling up in time commitment. NeurIPS volunteers can participate in more than one role!
Mentors will share their experiences and expertise during a dedicated open discussion time.
- Their primary responsibility is to bring their personal experience to students.
- The most important qualities are patience and empathy!
Workshop leaders will run a dedicated one-hour workshop for a pod of 24 students.
- Workshops will balance a TED-style talk, small group activities, and larger discussion.
- Leaders are encouraged to bring their own activities; however, we also have pre-packaged workshops.
- Example topics include AI and equity, generative art, and AI in video games.
Group leaders will supervise a group of about 8-12 students throughout the day.
- Their primary responsibility is to foster conversations in discussion blocks.
- The most important qualities are patience and empathy!
Demo leaders will provide students with hands-on opportunities to interact with AI models.
- The demo should engage students with AI and help them “learn by doing.”
- The most important qualities are an eagerness to share and openness to questions.
We will host training sessions and Q&As for each of the roles to ensure that you feel prepared!
If you’re interested in any of these roles, please fill out our call for volunteers form!
What’s Happening Next
As co-chairs, we’re juggling three core responsibilities:
- gathering feedback from the New Orleans community and iterating on event specifics
- working with our logistics partners on food, transportation, and swag!
- recruiting volunteers – that’s you!
Expect another update from us with more specifics soon.
We’re so excited to run this iteration of NeurIPS outreach. If you have any suggestions, questions, or feedback, please let us know!
Jessica Forde, Matthew Wang
Outreach Chairs, NeurIPS 2022
Appendix: more about us!
Jessica here! I’m a PhD student at Brown. My research seeks to improve scientific understanding and scientific practice in deep learning. In the past few years, I have organized workshops at NeurIPS such as I Can’t Believe it’s Not Better and ML Retrospectives. I also am an organizer of the ML Reproducibility Challenge. I’m excited to help the NeurIPS community build connections with the New Orleans community and encourage students to engage with AI in their everyday lives.
Hey, Matt here! I’m a first-year Master’s student in CS at UCLA, where I also did my undergrad. I’m passionate about CS, education, and any intersection of the two – my (ideal) research focus is some combination of PL + HCI + CS Ed! I’ve been teaching CS in some shape or form for the past 9 years, and I am excited to continue that work here! One particular highlight was teaching a high school machine learning class with Queer in AI’s Arjun Subramonian.
The new outreach program is inspired by Matt’s previous work at UCLA – in running ACM Teach LA and supporting exploretech.la.