By Tatiana Mhararira
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) &Robotics bootcamp held at Great Zimbabwe University Mashava Campus ended on a high note with a number of educators, learners and students being awarded with certificates of achievement on August 9,2024.
The 60 participants were awarded for the fulfilling key areas including practical machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision and image recognition, robotics fundamentals and AI ethics and responsible AI.
The award ceremony commenced with a tour of presentations from 10 different groups on the projects that they completed during the course of the week.
One of the groups called Quantum Core from Masvingo Christian College made a smart school AI-powered virtual assistance which helps to reduce congestion in schools during the beginning of each term so parents will use the applications in answering questions about the fees structure and payments.
DewTech group from Dewure High led by Tapiwanashe Muzhinji created a Chatbot for the school which answers questions from learners and parents who want to ask about the school. Its task is to enhance service efficiency by understanding and responding to the queries in real time. It answers questions on information fed in the knowledge base of the system.
After the tour of project presentations, there was a presentation by Girls in STEM Director Victoria Nxumalo on Ethical, Safe and Responsible use of AI in education.
Nxumalo said AI has its importance and some challenges that come with the use of new technology.
“The importance of AI in education includes enhancing learning experiences, personalized learning, interactive learning, data analysis, automated grading and special education.
“The challenges that comes with AI in education are poor privacy and data security, poor compliance with regulations including the Cyber Security and Protection Act of 2021, results maybe be biased and also, poor transparency in data usage,” said Nxumalo. She also said there were ethical considerations and safety measures in AI which she said informed consent and autonomy, avoiding harm and ensuring safety to the next person.
