Just this past weekend, NextEra Energy Resources completed the 4-week AI Bootcamp in collaboration with the Mark Cuban Foundation.
There were only 30 locations across the entire United States chosen for this program and two were approved here in South Florida: one in Miami and one in Palm Beach County. Although a fairly new initiative founded in 2019 by the Mark Cuban Foundation, the program attracted over 600 high school students in 9th – 12th grades.
There were over 20 high school students in attendance for the Palm Beach County program. Florida Power and Light sponsored and hosted the program at no cost to students. The classes were held in the beautiful FPL Manatee Lagoon in West Palm Beach which is an FPL Eco-Discovery Center.
Grace Kurian (pictured above on right) , Executive Director of Information Technology-Nuclear at NextEra Energy Inc, previously stated that “FPL is proud to serve as the host company for Mark Cuban’s AI Boot Camp for students who would otherwise not have exposure to programs in STEM. Our corporate culture is focused on giving back to the communities where we live and work. We are intentional about supporting and building thriving communities for the next generation.”
Michael Fowler speaks to students.
The program spanned 4 Saturdays from October 22nd to November 12th, but took months of planning, 22 volunteers and over 100+ volunteer hours to make this bootcamp come to life. Volunteers ranged from entry-level developers to the VP of IT and Business Unit CIO at FPL, Michael Fowler.
Normally taught at the collegiate level, students had the opportunity to interact in hands-on workshops about chatbots, AI, Machine learning and Natural Language processing – topics many had never encountered before.
Aimed to increase AI literacy and understanding in students from underserved communities, the high schools students didn’t need any prior experience with computer science, programming, or robotics to apply and attend.
Students completed a final project and made a presentation to the entire class. This not only helped them showcase their newly found technical skills, but the ability to present, communicate and practice public speaking skills.
At the close of the bootcamp, one students gave a thank you card with a kind message to his volunteer instructor: “Thank you for helping me with this bootcamp. I appreciate all your time and efforts into organizing this camp. I really learned a lot these past 4 weeks. Thank you!”