Speech - Address by Ms Low Khah Gek, CEO/ITE, at the Official Launch of the ITE-Intel AI4Y Programme on Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020, ITE College West

Dr Anjan Ghosh, Global Director – Program, Partnership and Policy Group, Intel Corporation

Mr. Anshul Sonak, Senior Director – Global AI Readiness (Program, Partnership and Policy, Intel Corporation)

Distinguished Partners and Industry Guests

Colleagues and Students

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

1. New digital and AI applications will be dominant in the coming years. Today’s launch of the Intel Artificial intelligence for Youth (or AI4Y) programme is thus timely as it will prepare our ITE students for their future work and life and it will also build the capabilities of our ITE staff.

2. The AI4Y programme for our students will be based on a structured curriculum with thoughtfully designed activities to achieve 4 objectives:

• INSPIRE. Use cases will be illustrated to get students excited with the possibilities of AI and to discuss pertinent issues around AI.

• ACQUIRE. Hands-on learning of basic AI concepts.

• EXPERIENCE. Practical technical workshops for students to delve deeper into the different AI domains.

• EMPOWER. Students use their newly-acquired skills to create simple AI projects.

3. To date, Intel has successfully implemented its AI4Y programme in India, Korea, and Poland. In Singapore, ITE will be the first Institute of Higher Learning to partner Intel to roll out this programme.  

AI Education Exchange

4. ITE has always looked out for opportunities for our students to work across borders. ITE has started collaborating with Intel Korea on AI Educational Projects. As you have seen in the earlier video which is an excerpt of a 42-minute documentary by South Korea’s Educational Broadcasting System, we now have a student exchange programme on AI learning and AI applications. Last September, ITE students and staff travelled to Korea and last week, 16 students, 2 faculty staff and the Principal of Busan Computer Science High School, Korea came to Singapore, resulting in useful exchange of AI learning experiences and applications. The students learn through AI use cases such as AI Cars and AI Drones and they developed their own AI applications and projects too.

AI4Y Pilot and TTT

5.  We piloted AI4Y last year with some students and 23 students were able to develop 9 AI projects with demonstrated outcomes. Today, they will be presented with the Intel Certification. Among their AI projects are the following: 

• ‘Drone/Machine Calibration’ using Intel ‘Realsense’ and AI.

• ‘Robot Nurse for Seniors’ using vision AI to support elderly in taking their medication timely and correctly.

• ‘Intelligent Signage’ using Openvino and Intel Movidius to generate a dynamic signboard that helps to influence and change public behaviour.

6. In preparation for the roll-out of the Intel AI4Y programme for all our students, Intel has provided a 5-day Train-The-Trainer (TTT) programme for our lecturers. 20 of our lecturers across the 3 ITE colleges attended the training from 6 to 10 January 2020. They will be receiving their Intel TTT certificates today. For lecturers who missed the January training, please note there will be 2 more TTT sessions in March and June respectively.

7. Moving forward, beyond PET students, we intend to reach out to adult learners.We believe existing employees needs AI exposure and training as business processes and systems will begin to incorporate AI elements and they need to use or develop new AI applications. We are grateful that Intel is open to ITE developing CET programmes by adapting from the AI4Y curriculum.

Conclusion

8. In closing, I would like to thank Intel for their generous support and far-sighted vision. We believe the ITE-Intel partnership will create a significant impact on students, workers and industry in Singapore.

9. I also thank all our industry partners present here for your unstinting support for ITE.

10. To all guests, staff and students, do enjoy the programme and have a great & pleasant day ahead.