Welcome

Rotary Self-Driving Race Car Competition
 

Objective

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become part of the American fabric for some time and SIRI, ALEXA is already taking orders. Self-driving cars have hit some streets and the concept of the Interconnectivity is now a reality through the ‘Internet of Things’ (IOT). Experts assert that in order for the society to fully embrace AI, Learning machines should not replace human workers but complement them. A common misconception about AI education is that it’s only important for students pursuing computer science, which is far from being true. Understanding AI can teach students many different skill sets that can help them work alongside machines, soft skills like Psychology and communication. With these improved skill sets students will have many more opportunities for well-paid jobs which will increase the standard of living for everyone in the community. So to prepare the future workforce for a computer coworker, there must be a shift in teaching and learning. A change that should begin at a high school level.

Rotary is dedicated to six areas of focus to build International Relationships, improve lives, and create a better world. One such area of focus is supporting Education. Rotary believes in reducing gender, ethnicity, and economic disparity in Education, and Workforce. Consider the Bay Area which is the mecca for tech workers but unfortunately, the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD) high schools have more than 50% of students belonging to economically disadvantaged as well as demographics underrepresented in technology workforce. So being a Rotary Club of San Jose East/Evergreen it’s our duty to bridge the gap of disparity in technical education by supporting AI clubs at ESUHSD high schools that expose students to concepts of AI, Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL) through Robotics.

 

Only 3 high schools out of 11 standard high schools and of 9 charter schools in ESUHSD have Robotics clubs. Hence our goal is to foster STEM education among high school students in the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD) high schools and to encourage underrepresented demographics into STEM fields especially into Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Deep Learning.