A Keysborough-based student will be flexing his AI-prowess with some of the world’s brightest young students in international competition.
Haileybury year 12 student Henry Ho has been chosen to represent Australia at the 2nd International Olympiad in AI (IOAI) in Beijing, China in early August.
This was after successfully completing a series of challenging exams that pitted him against Australia’s other AI whizzes.
Henry had to develop machine learning software that could recognise hand gestures, classify fake news and find solutions to difficult mathematical equations.
“I experimented with finetuning a language processing AI to be able to control a robotic arm through simple human instructions.
“I first learnt about AI by watching a YouTube video that showcased two video game characters being taught to play hide and seek.
“My Dad is a software engineer so from a young age I also had the opportunity to interact with a lot of different technology.”
The IOAI is the world’s most prestigious annual AI competition for secondary school students and teams from more than 70 countries and territories are expected to compete.
It aims to inspire young people, like Henry, to explore computer science particularly areas of science relevant to AI.
Henry is now busy preparing for the event.
“I’m reading recent research papers in machine learning and I’m timing myself as I work on solving theory-based problems and project-based practical challenges.
“I’ve developed my knowledge and skills a lot through experimentation and learning from the results.
“I think the most difficult part of the competition will be having a very limited amount of time – only a few hours – to solve the problems.
“I can’t try every possible idea that I have in that time and so I will have to make educated guesses about what will work well.”
After graduating, Henry has his sights set firmly on pursuing a career in the ever changing and advancing world of AI.
“I’m aiming to study computer science and statistics, although I’m not sure exactly what course or which university I’ll enrol in yet,” he says.
“In the longer term, I want to work on AI alignment and to design intelligent systems that help humans to think better.”
