F
ox Chapel Area High
School hosted dozens
of high school students
from around the region
February 25 for a daylong STEM
symposium. The event is a unique
STEM conference, run for and by
high school students.
The conference focused on three
main STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics)
disciplines: bioinformatics, artificial
intelligence, and computational biology.
Sessions were taught by leading
researchers and entrepreneurial guest
speakers in those fields. Students also
learned about research and internship
opportunities.
For the second year, the symposium
was coordinated by Fox Chapel Area
High School
junior Amulya
Garimella, founder
of the high
school’s STEM
Outreach Club.
“Artificial
intelligence and
computational
biology are really
rapidly growing
fields that are truly
revolutionizing the
world,” Amulya
says. “However,
Fox Chapel Area High School junior Amulya Garimella, coordinator of
the STEM symposium, introduces Bhiksha Raj, Ph.D., professor in the
so many students
Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
feel alienated from
pursuing these
fields because they’re not often exposed
to them and feel intimidated or don’t
know where to start. I hope to inspire
and motivate these students.”
The symposium was co-sponsored
by the Carnegie Mellon University
Computational Biology Department,
the Carnegie Mellon Software
Engineering Institute, and Argo AI.
Students work together on an activity as part
of an artificial intelligence breakout session.
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FOX CHAPEL AREA
Thanks to the sponsors, more than
$5,000 in stipends were awarded to
schools to help cover the costs of
transportation to the symposium and
for substitute teachers.
A student works on an artificial intelligence
exercise during a breakout session of the
symposium using a program that recognizes
rudimentary drawings that are then enhanced
and completed by the computer.