TeensInAI ’19, Ten days of fun — Euan Cortes

With adulthood upon me, having turned 18 in march and completing my A levels in July, it was clear that “adult” life was truly about to begin. Having heard about the TeensInAI19 Accelerator through Elena I knew it was something that would definitely help in preparing me for the future and aid me in my future endeavours.

Having only some basic knowledge of coding and AI, through learning GCSE computer science 2 years ago and through self interest in AI, I was nervous that I wouldn’t fit in, especially being one of the oldest. But walking into accenture on the monday, I found out how unique and different everyone was. I realised that there will always be people smarter and more creative than you but no matter who you are, you are unique and can always bring something to the table.

Throughout the 10 days my knowledge in so many different fields was expanded, from design thinking, to the ethics within AI with the help of an outstanding number of speakers from various backgrounds. Ranging from George Alagiah, (BBC) about his journey to how he got where he is, to Natasha Eeles about the ethics that are necessary to explore when developing an AI model. These speakers alongside the fantastic mentoring team who aided me and my team with developing our product and resolving any issues we had.

With my team we developed a product we hope will create a platform for those people who have been a victim of bullying, where they can seek the help and guidance to move past it. This was a big challenge for us and is something we are passionate about as we all know of someone who has been bullied and don’t want others to experience that pain. Our platform involves a chatbot which acts as a friend for users to chat to to receive active advise on how to move on and also just to chat.

Overall the highlight of this event was definitely meeting the whole cohort, the people there are so like minded in the respect that they all want to make this world a better place, we are the future and we will make the world a brighter place to live in for everyone with the use of AI.

A huge thanks to Elena Sinel and the entire TeensInAI team who made this event possible.

Euan Cortes