Machine Learning, Demystified
VISST Virtual Summer Camp
August 9-13, 2021
Recommended grades: 6-9
Self-driving cars, paintings authored by algorithms, artificial intelligences that seem almost human — machine learning is the thread that ties these amazing technologies together. So, is machine learning only accessible to researchers and engineers at powerful tech companies? Nope! Led by a UBC computer science professor with a PhD from Harvard’s machine learning lab, this virtual summer camp is designed to introduce you to the world of machine learning. No computer science or machine learning experience is expected.
Participants will receive a certificate of completion from the Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology
Program Details
When?
This virtual camp runs August 9-13, 2021. Each day consists of a morning session from 10am-12pm and an afternoon session from 1pm-3pm. Participants take their own lunch break from 12-1pm.
Who?
Our virtual camp is designed for kids in BC in grades 6-9. Participants may be grouped by age depending on enrolment. If you / your child are outside British Columbia or outside this age range, but would still like to participate, please contact us at workshops@visst.ca.
Cost
The camp fee for the 5 days is $199. However, if the fee is a barrier to your participation, a limited number of bursaries are available for eligible families - please contact us at workshops@visst.ca.
Why?
Join an eye-opening experience learning about a technology that affects us all, but that few people understand.
Gain experience in areas you won’t find in school, including how machine learning works and how it can be used or misused in society.
Enjoy a tailor-made machine learning curriculum for your age group, created by a team with strong experience in both machine learning and education. This will be hard to find somewhere else!
Meet like minded people with common interests in important areas of technology, science, and life.
Earn a certificate of completion from the Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology.
Here’s what we’ll do:
Day 1:
Decision Trees
How does our email flag spam messages? How does our phone suggest what words to type next? On Day 1 we will investigate the decision tree learning algorithm, an intuitive and approachable machine learning method. While the methods used in practice are often more complex, with decision trees we can already explore the basic ideas of machine learning: how it works, why it works, and what it’s capable of.
Day 2:
ML Metrics
A fundamental question in machine learning is how to know if your ML algorithm is working. When playing a game of Candy Crush or Ultimate Frisbee, it’s pretty clear who is winning - we have a score for that! In machine learning, it’s not always easy to know if your algorithm is working as intended - and it’s also really important! On Day 2 we’ll delve into this question, working through fundamental concepts that every machine learning practitioner thinks about on a daily basis.
Day 3:
Computer Vision
When you take a picture with your phone, how does it recognize faces in the image? Do we need new algorithms when working with images and videos, or can we reuse what we already had? On Day 3 we’ll dive into computer vision, meaning algorithms that let computers “see”. We’ll think about how images and videos are stored in a computer, and then we’ll jump into some amazing examples of this technology at work.
Day 4:
Artificial Intelligence
How does machine learning relate to artificial intelligence? And what about those AI systems in the news like AlphaGo or self-driving cars? On Day 4 we’ll introduce the big ideas in machine learning that can be used to create intelligent systems. Then we’ll delve into some examples and see these algorithms in action!
Day 5:
ML in our Society
Machine learning has been incredibly successful in recent years, but at what cost? Recent books like Weapons of Math Destruction and movies like Coded Bias are revealing how machine learning can perpetuate bias and unfairness in our society. On Day 5 we’ll ask where machine learning is used (answer: a lot of places!) and how it is affecting us (answer: in more ways than we might think!).
Camp Leaders
This camp is led by Shaun, an education entrepreneur (left) and Mike, an award-winning machine learning professor at UBC and a certified high school teacher (right). Learn more about Shaun and Mike here.
Testimonials
This was probably my favorite camp I've ever been to and it gives you knowledge that you will use throughout your life. This was amazing and thank you so much Mike and Shaun for teaching us about this.
- Grade 6 student in our Spring Break camp, Deconstructing TikTok
i just loved how they make me want to learn
- Grade 7 student in our Spring Break camp, Deconstructing TikTok
You did a great job making ML genuinely interesting and making it much less scary by demystifying it and pointing out how much of it is just stats and buzzwords; it showed me ML is something that I can actually work with/in and not some occult magic only PhDs can invoke.
- UBC student in Mike’s machine learning course
Our Story
We are a team of experienced educators in the process of opening a not-for-profit in-person high school in Vancouver. While we wait out the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re launching virtual programs to start pursuing our mission of educating high school students without leaving them wondering, Why am I learning this?
This camp ran in 2021. To sign up for our 2022 camp, see https://www.visst.ca/machine-learning-2022
Questions?
Contact us at workshops@visst.ca
Other Summer Programs
Machine Learning
Machine learning is a fascinating and rapidly growing field. It may sound complex and difficult to understand, but in this lab we’ll do some machine learning of our own to learn just how accessible and powerful it can be.
Create & Publish
In today’s world, we publish thoughts, ideas, and opinions almost on a daily basis through social media and other platforms. But what about an essay, a book, or a painting? Or art that crosses the boundaries of different worlds like a dictionary of memes? In this summer camp, you’ll work on a project to express yourself with the media of your choice (text, animation, images, etc). Then we’ll explore the process of publishing your work and sharing it with others.
Program with Puzzles!
Are you keen to try programming with a fun, accessible, project-based approach? Or perhaps you have programmed before and want to expand your algorithmic thinking skills? Either way, if you like puzzles, this course is for you! Offered through a collaboration between VISST and Coding Pals, this course is offered completely free of charge.