On August 1st, AYSI-SCI students, teachers, officers, judges, and sponsors gathered for our finalist presentations awards ceremony. The event concluded the 2020 AYSI Summer Coding Institute, honoring our students' hard work and thanking all the people who made this amazing event possible. Listed below are the award winners from our 4 week long Competition Program. BEST IN SHOW (Cash prize of $1000) S32: Endangered Species Classifier Evan Yu, Michael Zheng, and Alex Cheong FIRST PLACE JUNIOR DIV (Cash prize of $200) J24: Covid-19 Clinic App Carah Su and Ellen Zulkarnain FIRST PLACE SENIOR DIV (Cash prize of $300) S7: Soap Underwater Detection System (SUDS): A Neural Network for Dishwasher Water Conservation Ethan Zhao, Aaron Liu, Alan Zhao SECOND PLACE JUNIOR DIV (Cash prize of $100) J8: Trace it!- A COVID-19 contact tracing app J16: OurMovies J18: App That Aides to Detect Plagiarism J26: MediLinked J37: House Stability Detector SECOND PLACE SENIOR DIV (Cash prize of $200) S1: Alert System for Reducing Occurrences of Car Accidents Related to Driver-Related Mistakes S15: Arch A-Eye S18: Detecting Underage Alcohol Consumption in a Non-Intrusive Manner Using Deep Learning S22: Fast Violence Detection Through Deep Learning THIRD PLACE JUNIOR DIV J4: Book App J6: Music Buddy J10: Family Finder J28: Hydraulic Flume Simulation THIRD PLACE SENIOR DIV S26: An Application for Quick Classification of American Sign Language via Deep Learning Image Recognition S5: Predicting House Prices by Linear Regression S4: Pocket Recycler: A Convolutional Neural Network Approach to Recyclables Classification S25: Classifying Skin Diseases via Artificial Neural Networks FOURTH PLACE JUNIOR DIV J11: Carbon Dioxide Reduction J20: The Dog Dictionary J21: Covid-19 Case Tracker and Comparison Calculator J23: Grade Face ID J33: Happiness Game J39: EduProject FOURTH PLACE SENIOR DIV S2: SnapCycle S6: DeepFake Photoshop Image Detector Using Convolutional Neural Networks via Deep Learning S10: Shield Covid S24: Second View Alzheimer's Disease Recognition S29: Low-Maintenance Method of Detecting Mask Wearing in a Public Area via Machine Learning and Computer Vision S31: Tracking Phone Usage to Help Users Increase Productivity RISING STARS AWARDS Karl Hui Oscar Li Hollis Lin Clement Wang HONORABLE MENTIONS JUNIOR DIV J7: Nnews J27: Using MIT App Inventor to Help Students Manage Stress Using Problem-Based Coping J5: Kids Adventure J29: Obesitysolve J22: Secure Messenger App J38: Expired Products J34: Dangerous Animal Classification Tool J30: The Way of the Sensors J12: Tax Estimator J32: Gardening App J15: Learning App J35: Improving and maintaining mental health through music J36: The SOS Emergency App J19: Fade J17: Book Finder J9: Meal Suggestor HONORABLE MENTIONS SENIOR DIV S16: Heart Health App S27: Detecting Phishing Emails/SMS Texts with Machine Learning S11: Neural Network-Based Speech-To-Text System with Identification of Stuttering S3: Identification of Fake New S28: Food Identification App S9: Distinguishing Poison Ivy From Similar Three-Leaved Plants Through Deep Learning Image Classification S8: Face Space: A Free, Accessible Program for Facial Detection S21: COVID-19 Prediction Congratulations to all of our competitors and award winners!
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The AYSI-SCI lecture program has officially come to an end! Thank you so much to the amazing students, parents, lecturers, and teaching assistants that helped contribute to our success. A special thank you goes out to our amazing sponsors at AMS and the ACP foundation as well as our guest lecturers from the Mark Cuban Foundation. Although our lecture program may have ended, we are far from finished. Starting July 1st will be our much anticipated competition program in which students will use the topics they've learned to create a capstone project and compete for monetary prizes and trophies. ![]() Students will work with their previously chosen or assigned teammates to create applications or software projects that aim to solve real issues present in their community or society at large. They will have a month to complete their projects and presentations, so get working soon and good luck to all!
Our AYSI-SCI students are now well into the lecture program with both our junior and senior divisions completing lesson 8 yesterday. Students have learned topics ranging from introductory programming syntax to advanced machine learning concepts, and every day they continue to practice their skills with homework and take-home projects. Both junior and senior divisions of the AYSI-SCI lecture program were also delighted to welcome Jesse Stauffer from the Mark Cuban Foundation to guest lecture our joint 3rd lesson. Over the past few weeks, our amazing AYSI team has delivered a practical and fun computer science education to our 250 phenomenal students. We hope to continue our engagement and success throughout the rest of the lecture program and onwards into the competition program.
The Association of Young Scientists and Innovators launched the first Summer Coding Institute with a member orientation meeting on May 24th. The Summer Coding Institute is AYSI's response to the global coronavirus pandemic, enabling students 6th-8th grade to learn the fundamentals of programming and artificial intelligence.
AYSI's Summer Coding Institute aims to provide students with a unique opportunity to explore cutting edge topics in computer science and artificial intelligence - conducted on a virtual platform. Our vision is to empower young students not just with technical skills but also with the mindset of “innovating for impact." The program teaches the fundamentals of programming and artificial intelligence to students and pushes them to consider how they can apply knowledge to community problems. The AYSI Summer Coding Institute kicked off with an information session on April 25th with around 240 registrants. Since then nearly 220 students are now fully enrolled in the 8-week program. Additionally, AYSI has granted 21 financial aid scholarships to registered members, granting them full and free access to the program's resources. AYSI's goal is to bring AI education to everyone, breaking the barrier between those who can learn and those who can't. Through sponsors AYSI is aiming to grant scholarships to all students in need, opening the program up to everyone. Powering the program at its roots is a group of devoted sponsors. AYSI is delighted to take on Ams AG, the ACP Foundation, and the CAST Association as sponsors and supporters to the program and AI education as a whole. The Summer Coding Institute also includes lectures taught by MIT, Caltech, Columbia, Stanford, and UT students. The program also includes guest lecturers from the Mark Cuban Foundation. The officers at AYSI are extremely grateful for the support and quick growth of the 2020 Summer Coding Insitute, hoping to teach students how to turn ideas into products with computer science. On February 22, AYSI student and mentors competed at the annual Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair capturing 25% of the 1st Places (Advancing to the Texas State Science and Engineering Fair) and 38% of the Grand Prizes (Advancing to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair).
AYSI students also received recognition from a variety of special award sponsors and corporations. GRAND PRIZE (ADVANCING TO ISEF) Life Sciences - John Rho (with partner Govardhan Poondi) Life Sciences Runner-Up - Rachel Mammen Physical Sciences Runner-Up - Alay Shah FIRST PLACE (ADVANCING TO TXSEF) Robotics and Intelligent Machines - Kevin Meng Physics & Astronomy - Derek Qin Computational Biology & Bioinformatics - John Rho Plant Sciences - Rachel Mammen Translational Medicine - Alay Shah SECOND PLACE (ADVANCING TO TXSEF) Biomedical Engineering - Andrei Spiride Chemistry - Nicholas Zhong Biochemistry - Lillian Ye THIRD PLACE (ADVANCING TO TXSEF) Computational Biology & Bioinformatics - Rithvik Ganesh Embedded Systems - Arnold Venter HONORABLE MENTION Earth & Environmental Systems - Ethan Zhao Earth & Environmental Systems - Kevin Su (Junior Division) Biomedical Engineering - Justin Rho & Sean Jannati Behavioral Sciences - William Yan SPECIAL AWARDS Kevin Meng - U.S. Air Force - Certificate of Achievement John Rho - Acoustical Society of America - Outstanding Senior Acoustic Project Arnold Venter - Terracon, Inc. - Engineering Excellence Award, Senior Div. 3rd Place Individual Derek Qin - Office of Naval Research - Naval Science Award, Senior Division, U.S. Air Force - Certificate of Achievement Ethan Zhao - DFW Chapter of Hazardous Materials Managers - Honorable Mention Next, AYSI members will prepare for the upcoming State and International Science Fairs. First, second, and third places will move on to the State Science Fair on March 27 & 28. Congratulations to All !!! On February 9th, AYSI hosted its first-ever mock competition to prepare for the upcoming Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair (DRSEF). Winners of DRSEF advance onto the state competition in March, and grand prize winners are eligible to compete at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in May.
John and Alay served as the fair's judges, providing feedback based on the actual rubric used by judges at the regional fair. Students brought their boards and research binders to present their projects, and they were coached on presentation skills by our mentor team. With competitions creeping up around the corner, AYSI switched gears from lectures to discussions and gathered around to practice elevator pitches together. It was great to hear from everyone about their research. Mentors gave feedback following each speech and worked on refining content, organization, and presentation aspects. Building confidence was key for many people. Don't be afraid to show the culmination of all your hard work these past few months!
Members got to further refine their elevator pitches in mock interviews and many have started to put together binders, abstracts, and other presentation materials. Looking forward to seeing everyone's boards and presentations and remember to practice, practice, practice! We are proud to announce that 6 members and/or mentors have been named as TJSHS Finalists! They will be competing in College Station, TX in two weeks. Wish them luck!
Alay Shah: Behavioral/Medicine Ellen Sun: Behavioral/Medicine Lillian Ye: Biochemistry/Microbiology Andrei Spiride: Engineering Ethan Zhao: Environmental Science Nicholas Zhong: Physics/Earth & Space As members began to wrap up experimentation, AYSI dove into presentation tactics and interview tips in last week's meeting. Mentors also conducted mock interviews with students. Future meetings will dedicate more time towards refining students' elevator speeches, enhancing vocal projection, and fine-tuning interview techniques.
To those who unfortunately did not move on from school competition: do not worry! We are incredibly proud of the work you've done, and you should be too. There are plenty of other competitions to submit your projects to - for this, please see our FAQ page. Also consider starting your new projects! Research and engineering are processes that take time; it's never too early to get started on new ideas. Let us know what you come up with! Our meeting regarding refining research and creating presentations was a success! AYSI members experienced a full-featured lesson and mentorship session on taking their research to the next level with data and statistics methods. They also learned how to create effective visual and oral presentations for the upcoming competition season. The AYSI team is very excited to see these students shine in the science fairs looming up on the horizon. Future meetings will dedicate more time towards refining students' presentations and conducting mock interviews to prepare them for rigorous competitions.
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