Teens explore the future of AI at UB experience

By Kevin Manne

BUFFALO, N.Y. — As artificial intelligence tech like ChatGPT, Midjourney and Copilot have transformed how we work and create, 23 tech-savvy teens from 14 local schools stepped into the future at the University at Buffalo’s inaugural “AI Experience at UB” program. 

At the free event, held June 30-July 1, students learned about the foundations of AI and machine learning, received hands-on training with a range of AI tools, used AI to develop and pitch innovative business ideas, built video games and learned about various aspects of ethics and trust in AI. 

During one hands-on session, UB faculty led students through a physical simulation to help them better understand the inner workings of a neural network, which forms the backbone of AI. 

“The students learned how an AI model takes an input — a picture in our case — and uses math to predict an output, which was the type of animal in our picture,” says Kevin Cleary, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems, who developed the simulation. “Throughout the process, the students each played the role of various parts of the neural network and manually calculated the math to produce a prediction at the end.” 

The AI Experience at UB was hosted by the UB School of Management’s Center for AI Business Innovation and the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Center of Excellence in Information Systems Assurance Research and Education, in collaboration with the UB Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, and was supported by the University at Buffalo AI Seed Funding Grants.

Leading the program were UB School of Management faculty members Laura Amo, assistant professor of management science and systems; Kevin Cleary, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems; Joana Gaia, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems; Celine Krzan, clinical assistant professor of entrepreneurship; David Murray, clinical professor of management science and systems; and Dominic Sellitto, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems; along with Shambhu Upadhyaya, professor of computer science and engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

“This is the first of many K-12 experiences the School of Management and Center for AI Business Innovation will be bringing to the community,” says Sellitto, who also serves as assistant faculty director of the Center for AI Business Innovation. “We look forward to providing platforms to foster creative, impactful and ethical engagement with these exciting new technologies.”