Day 15: Symposium and Farewell
Our last day at UCSF AI4ALL was a bittersweet one for all! It began with students meeting with their lead and co-TA’s to rehearse their final presentations in preparation for the grand symposium in the afternoon. During these early hours, students practiced their lines while being timed by their TA’s. They changed words and added lines, taking care to fix font sizes and insert other last-minute touches. As it became clear that the campers knew their projects inside out and back again, lunch time arrived.
Unlike breaks before, this was very special: the alumni TA’s had created a short film to screen! This past week, Janice, Isha, and Claire had asked campers to send them videos expressing their feelings about the program. The TA’s received an overwhelming number of thoughtful, appreciative clips detailing the students’ joy and thankfulness of having been included in UCSF AI4ALL. The TA’s then compiled the clips into a twenty-minute movie with some creative editing, making use of a favorite Zoom photo, https://youtu.be/f-5uPNwT68A. After allowing the graduate student TA’s and directors to chat for a bit, Isha announced the surprise screening. At the end of the showing, there were few dry eyes; it was a touching way to commemorate the ending of the program.
Besides the video of appreciation, the TA’s had another gift up their sleeve: a meme compilation! Throughout the program, the #just_kids Slack channel had been saturated with women screaming at cats and cars taking sharp turns (classic Internet comics) — with a special twist. Each meme incorporated an AI reference or special inside joke. From conveying complaints about autoencoders to praising the merits of Jupyter Notebook, there was quite a variety of somewhat-funny humor! TA Claire presented the short video to the group after its more sentimental counterpart. By distracting from the impending farewells, the clip helped lighten the mood!
Next up was our keynote speaker: Marylyn Ritchie, PhD, Professor of Genetics, Director of the Center for Translational Bioinformatics, Associate Director for Bioinformatics, and Associate Director of the Center for Precision Medicine at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her intriguing lecture began with her educational journey, included interesting aspects of her research involving KEGG pathways, and concluded with some hard-won advice (and mention of her podcast CALM: Combining Academic and Life with Marylyn https://marylynritchie.com/podcast !). Overall, it was a superb introduction to our camper presentations, prefacing the great work they did by putting it into a broader context!
Our last event for the day was the presentation of the camper’s research. The last three weeks have taken the students far on their journey with machine learning; from introduction to Python on Day 1 to neural networks and autoencoding by Week 3, the campers have really come a long way! These presentations were a testament to their hard work, determination, and unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Congratulations to all of the participants!
The directors, TA’s, lecturers, and campers have all poured a tremendous amount of time and effort into making this program a success. Special kudos to program directors Dr. Tomiko Oskotsky and Professor Marina Sirota — without them, this summer camp would not exist! Similarly, without each and every one of the campers, TA’s, and guest speakers, nothing would have been the same! The knowledge gained from listening to lectures by renowned professors and conducting research under talented TA’s have furthered everyone’s appreciation of AI. Additionally, the interpersonal interactions were of great value; connections forged these past three weeks will likely stand the test of time and space. It is safe to say that everyone walked away from the program a brighter — and better — person.
Overall, UCSF AI4ALL 2020 has been a life-changing experience for all. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for these amazing staff and students.
Go Bears! 🐻
Blog post by Claire Swadling with ❤.
