The growing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday life has captured the imagination of young people who may be interested in careers in science or health care. How will it be used? Will it make a difference in what future jobs will be available or how patients will be treated?
For the past two summers, these questions and more have been explored during a week-long AI summer school for high school students in grades 11 and 12.
“This summer school course, AI-Powered Medical Imaging Informatics, provides a unique opportunity for the next generation to dive into the fascinating world of AI and its application in medical imaging informatics. This type of AI summer school helps to develop a workforce in highly demanded AI applications.”
– Ahmad P. Tafti, assistant professor of Health Informatics and director of the HexAI Research Laboratory.
Developing Practical AI Skills
Among other things, students develop practical skills using Python programming as they learn how AI and computer vision techniques and algorithms are used for automatic object detection and localization in medical imaging.
Each day is filled with a combination of lectures, keynotes, hands-on practice and collaborative project assignments.
Sophia Gombas, a senior at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, completed the course in June 2024.
“I’ve learned so much,” says Gombas. “There were a lot of presentations and really educated speakers, so it was really fun for me to explore this part of computer science that I’ve never interacted with before.”
Giving Students a Competitive Edge
“It’s very important for students to have this kind of hands-on experience early on so they can better learn what we mean by safe AI—what we mean by unbiased AI—and what we mean by explainable AI, particularly in health care,” adds Tafti. “They learn fundamental algorithms and fundamental concepts that could be applicable for other domains.”
He notes that exposure to this kind of knowledge during high school makes students more competitive as they apply to colleges, undergraduate and even graduate programs.
There is no cost for the summer school, but seats are limited to 30 students. Tafti reports that they received more than 45 applications for last summer’s session.
“One of our students took a 17-hour plane ride from Indonesia!” says Tafti. “This is evidence that our program and this AI summer school enjoy an international reputation.”
2025 AI Summer School Dates and Registration
The 2025 AI Summer School will take place from Monday, June 9, through Friday, June 13, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET. Students will have the option of attending either in-person at the Pitt Oakland campus or online. For full details please see the registration information webpage.
