Discover the world of artificial intelligence: ETH AI Center launches an AI competition for teenagers

Germany and Austria already run a yearly AI competition for young minds, now Switzerland joins in: The Swiss AI competition entered its pilot phase in October 2022. Schoolgirls from Zurich, Wohlen and Lucerne have already registered to take part.

In the coming months, the young people will work in small teams to develop and elaborate their very own AI project. They will be supported and mentored by doctoral students from the ETH AI Center, the competence center for artificial intelligence at ETH Zurich. Interested students can still register until mid-December.

Generous support by the Cantons of Zurich and Schwyz

The project is generously supported by the external page Office of Economic Affairs and Labor of the Canton of Zurich and external page Office of Economic Affairs of the Canton of Schwyz, and led by the ETH AI Center.

The competition aims at introducing girls and boys to artificial intelligence (AI), a key technology of our time that is set to shape the future of many businesses and profesions. The students are provided with external page extensive online learning materials, that can be accessed free of charge. The course materials have been developed for external page the German forerunner of the AI Competition for teenagers. Anyone with an inquisitive mind can use the course material to learn about the origins of artificial intelligence, take the first steps with the programming language Python up to the implementation of a fully working AI project. Prior knowledge in the domains of programming and artificial intelligence are explicitly not necessary.

"We want to introduce the next generations to the topic of AI with a hands-on mentality", emphasizes PD Dr. Alexander Ilic, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the ETH AI Center: "Implementing a project, in the form of their own programmed AI, from idea to product, offers the best learning for young people: it means solving a problem through trial-and-error until you reach the desired goal." Furthermore, the participants will learn the basics of product development and project management - valuable skills for any career they may choose in the future.

It's all about bringing your own ideas to life

Intelligent algorithms are already an integral part of our everyday lives. Whether it's communicating with Siri and Alexa on a daily basis, autonomous driving, or using a SnapChat filter - there's always an AI inside. We all use artificial intelligence several times a day without even thinking about it. In the future, AI will change many more professional fields and permeate numerous aspects of our lives.

But what is artificial intelligence, actually? Anyone who wants to know can find out as part of the online course, and create novel tools from their own imagination using code.

"The current skilled labor situation cannot be solved overnight, but must be thought of in the long term", says Fabian Streiff, Head of Location Promotion for the Canton of Zurich. "The situation is particularly tense in the ICT sector. That's why we have to find ways and design initiatives to ensure that Zurich, as a center of innovation, will have enough skilled workers in the future. The ETH AI Center's AI competition is one of these initiatives." 

When it comes to choosing and designing their own projects, the participating students are free to follow their interests: whether they prefer to work on a chatbot, a robot or on computer vision - the projects can be based on everyday problems, relate to the students' hobbies or simply arise from a fascination for a particular topic. Attractive prizes await the finalists.