Presidential AI Challenge honours student bullying prevention chatbot at White House

A student team largely comprising Indian-American pupils won the first US Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge National Champion Awards for a bullying prevention chatbot app. Awards were presented at the White House by First Lady Melania Trump. Other winners included middle and high school projects focused on skills learning, homework support, and computer vision for investigations.

A bullying-prevention chatbot built by a team led by Indian-American students won a top national prize at the White House. The project received a Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge National Champion Award. First Lady Melania Trump presented the first set of these awards on Tuesday. The winning app was named Friendzone Chatbot Bullying Prevention App.

The Elementary School Track 2 honour went to a five-member community team from Aldie, Virginia. The group included Aarna Jaiswal, Eshani Khatri, Riva Madda, Samhitha Pinnamareddy and Sanuli Rathnayake. The students created the Friendzone Chatbot Bullying Prevention App. The tool aimed to reduce bullying through a chatbot-based approach.

Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge winners across school tracks

Other student teams also secured national titles across the competition’s tracks. Students from NorthStar Middle School in Sammamish, Washington won Middle School Track 1. Viha Iyer, Arya Pratap and Shrimayi Shetty earned the award for a project called Skillup. Their work was recognised alongside winners from several other states.

In the high school division, Khandakar Mahin from Upper Darby Senior High School in Pennsylvania won High School Track 1. The project was titled, Utilising Computer Vision for Hotel Room Identification in Criminal Investigations. Mahin will graduate from high school this week. Mahin will attend Harvard University in the autumn.

In Elementary Track 1, Alcoa Intermediate School from Tennessee received the award for Homework Helper. The team members were Ryker Cochran, Emma Connor, Aaron Gallagher and Ayden Taverna. Middle School Track 2 went to Shan Vance from Julia Landon College Preparatory School in Jacksonville, Florida. The project was Using AI Models to Detect Urban Blight using Street-view Images.

High School Track 2 was won by Alexander Du from North Allegheny High School, Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Du’s project was IRIS: A Low-Cost Spatiotemporal AI Framework for Visually Impaired Navigation in Complex Urban Environments. The awards highlighted varied uses of AI. Projects ranged from education support to safer urban navigation.

Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge drew entries nationwide and overseas

Melania Trump praised the students during the awards event at the White House. "It is wonderful to see this very impressive group of innovators at the White House. Im proud that you represent the best of America. You are our future,\" Melania Trump said. The remarks were delivered while winners from several categories were recognised.

The Presidential AI Challenge received submissions from across the United States and beyond. It attracted entries from all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Department of Defence schools overseas. \"The first Presidential AI Challenge was broadly welcomed across our nation. More than 20,000 students participated across all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 49 Department of War schools in 10 countries around the world,\" Melania Trump said.

The First Lady said the competition aimed to drive innovation among young participants. Melania Trump said it was set up to help students explore artificial intelligence and its uses. The awards marked the first time national champions were honoured under this challenge. Winners were selected across elementary, middle, and high school tracks.

With inputs from PTI