Name: This startup wants to diversify the A.I. workforce
Uploaded: 2022-05-09
Duration: 6 min 21 s
Description: Tech companies are still falling short to do better with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Tech companies are still falling short to do better with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This startup wants to diversify the A.I. workforce

Tech

SureStart is focused on training students from communities underrepresented in A.I., and connecting them with their first jobs or internships.

when the sensors detected no occupancy, the lights and fans in this room were automatically switched off when the driver is not able to call for help. Top guard is, I can quickly detect a symmetry to see if our deep learning model detects any facial paralysis. Short starts mission is opportunity equity in tech and AI. We are building a ai optimized platform for ai jobs training and um jobs connection. So on this platform, students can develop the technical skills and then ultimately be connected to their first roles in the ai ml industry, the makeup of the Ai workforce today and I don't think this is news is you know, primarily male and primarily white. So our goal is to really change the representation of um the workforce that is building A I. N. M. L. We want to see more women, we want to see more people of color. We want to see people with different lived experiences. So with sure start students can develop all of the skills that they need and then be connected to their first roles in industry but they don't have to do it alone. Welcome everyone. We're super excited that you all have participated in our program this summer. A lot of programs that I have been a part of that, our computer science related solely focused on the technical skills of things, which is great, really helpful because you can only do so much in the classroom. It's really great to get that outside experience but the thing that makes sure start special is that it goes beyond that I am proud to present fast life saving up that the text facial asymmetry, these are my teammates, Erica and june I have a really bad case of imposter syndrome sometimes. So sure start in the M. I. T. Feature makers program really kind of made me realize that I am capable of what I'm doing and it was like a really big reminder of like why I'm pursuing a bachelor's in computer science because it could get a little bit um intimidating when you're just like the only women in the classroom um or people talk over you all the time and you're just like, oh maybe I just don't know thanks but just start really made sure that I'm aware that I have skills and I'm just as good as anybody else in the field. Um no matter what my identity is. So that's like a really big lesson that I got from that once the students are in our program, basically they are provided with a uh self paced learning material that's very curated. I'm a big believer in once. So every single day students have one objective one lesson in one action item. Um They are also supported by proximate mentors who are often graduate students or um you know, early career industry experts who are quite committed to a similar mission of opening doors. The fact that Tanya wanted to help people who are underrepresented in tech and whom would otherwise struggle breaking into tech. I think that is something that like, spoke to me personally and my goal to become an aerospace engineer and the student I was mentoring, most of them have like zero background and ai and they've never even touched machine learning in their lives. And so I was like the first exposure to like machine learning. I think my role for them was just to sort of inspire them because machine learning is, it's difficult, actually takes a lot of work just to understand a lot of these topics, right? Not even much less get into the field. So I wanted to be there to show them like, hey, like just because it's difficult, doesn't mean it can't be done. And I am an example of that. Once the students have completed their training, we encourage them to use state of the art tools and environments so they have everything posted on GIT hub. Um you know, their resumes are polished and then we connect them to opportunities with industry partners and of course we encourage them to also apply for positions on their own. Um The goal is to take the next step whether it's through us or on their own, supported by us. I'm James Dickerson, I'm the chief scientific Officer for Consumer Reports. I oversee all of the protocol and procedure development for the comparative testing of products, goods and services that we are best known for for the last 85 86 years now. Mhm. I was delightfully surprised of how deeply versed the sure start interns really were about different topical areas. I've had one high school student, I've had one undergraduate student and I've had one graduate student. All amazing. I'm looking for diversity because it enriches the thought and enriches the creativity and enriches ultimately how it can be applied to the consumer marketplace. The consumer marketplace is diverse. So those who exercise their energy to work on different projects most certainly should come from a diversity community because our community locally regionally, nationally, internationally, globally diverse, the current focus that we have on making ai more equitable, more representative, more inclusive and ultimately using it in a more ethical way. We need to keep that focus and as long as we have that I do feel that a I literally could deliver on its promise of empowering and enabling all of us.