Shraman Kar 

In middle school, I learned that food insecurity is real as I saw firsthand some of my classmates going through it. I started food drives, worked at a local food bank, and later created “Foodle” (https://www.thefoodle.org), an innovative artificial intelligence-based technology solution that helped people in need get access to food and made it really easy for anybody to donate their excess food. I received rave reviews from numerous charities on how impactful this could be to communities in need of food. Further, I received a unique opportunity to present this app to senators, scientists, congressmen, and high-ranking officials in Washington D.C.This platform inspired me to build several other projects, with each of them receiving rave reviews from community leaders and helping thousands of people in need. I came to the realization that if my projects could make such an impact on the community, then what would happen if a group of like-minded students did the same? To that end, I founded a non-profit organization Community AI where I could create an ecosystem of mentors, instructors, corporates, and students to create projects to help the community. These students developed outstanding projects for the betterment of the community and many of these projects have been commended by community leaders, senators, and congressmen and brought tremendous help to the community.

In the modern days, AI plays a pivotal role in transforming every industry at an unprecedented scale - be it by assisting doctors in diagnosis and treatment or by helping farmers to have higher yields with information on preparing the land and many more. I have seen how my project, Foodle, can make a big difference in reducing hunger. There are many students who want to build something similar for the communities but cannot do so because there are not many resources available to train them with the concepts and mentor them in creating projects. The current secondary school curriculum does not offer anything similar and it’s rare to find AI in students’ extracurricular activities. The outside courses are very expensive and are not customized to accommodate high or middle-school students. Besides, learning these concepts at an early age makes the students ready for future . As per a recent study by Forbes, It’s predicted that 97 million jobs involving AI will be created between 2022 and 2025. To exponentiate the power of AI for the good of the communities and the environment and to promote goal 8 of the United Nations’ sustainable development plan, which is to “Foster sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”, I founded Community AI, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization (https://www.thecommunityai.org/ ).

My goal is to empower students by teaching them the basics of AI and project development so that they could successfully build scalable community projects. I recruited a core group of high school students and met Dr. Willert, a lead data scientist, who agreed to advise us. To teach effectively, I got myself certified in machine learning/AI through UMichigan and IBM. There was no single course designed for high/ middle school kids to master machine learning. So I created a first-of-its-kind intro to AI course suitable for school students. We started running five weeks-long free global camps and workshops. These camps have become so popular over the years, that registration starts for the next camp before the current camp finishes. Students join from near and faraway places, from a small town in Texas to a war zone in Kashmir. It is inspiring to see these same students, who before the camp had but the heart and motivation to help people in need, successfully build AI-driven projects for societal good. To showcase our projects and to get feedback, we go to several places including community leaders’ offices, food banks, the police department, etc. We created some easy-to-understand content for our YouTube channel. To give extra support to students, I also created an online platform, Community Academy, where tutors and tutees are matched for a one-on-one lesson.

We do many initiatives to take our mission forward. We collaborate with high schools and help set up AI Clubs so that each school has a community of students learning and working together on AI projects. In addition, we run virtual workshops over live zoom sessions for learning and mentoring. To encourage students we recognize the best project ideas and fund the top fifteen projects as well as provide mentoring to create and roll out the projects. We arrange TedTalk-style live sessions where we regularly invite AI experts, from the director of R&D at the Tampa Bay Rays to a researcher from Los Alamos National labs to an engineer from NVIDIA and many more, to share their real-life experiences and discuss how AI is shaping the world. In these sessions, members get an opportunity to directly connect with the speakers.I conceived the idea of a “Sustainability and Community AI Fair” (https://www.communityaifair.com/ ) where students around the world can showcase their work. We encouraged students across the world to do AI projects for the social good. We raised tens of thousands of dollars from corporations to fund the best projects and to provide resources and scholarships to low-income students so that they can create projects without financial burden. We recruited accomplished judges from different countries. These students are becoming leaders in our organization and teaching others.

Inspired by their newly found skills, our students started conceiving amazing project ideas and began working on them with the help of mentors & financial/technical resources of Community AI. Some of the projects include an app for demand-driven charity, automatically segregating trash for recycling, warning about wildfire before it strikes, driver safety, and many more. Some solutions were so successful that, they received several recognitions. Our workshops helped members to pursue their dream education/career. For example, a student who joined our camp from a warzone is now pursuing a computer science degree from her dream college in the USA.

We have 800+ members from 45 US states & 50 countries. Besides, we helped start AI clubs in Kentucky, Arizona, Missouri, New Jersey, and Minnesota. Our AI Fair reached out to almost 250 schools worldwide covering more than 36,000 students and received participation from 15 countries. To encourage more students we started publishing AI Blogs written by the students. We are inspiring our students to become leaders both in our organization and in the AI clubs and making difference in the communities.

I am also able to use my change-making power as a selected state representative of the student advisory council of Kentucky’s education department (KDE) & as a board member of CTE by advocating AI education to students of the state.