RFA Seniors Kenneth Davis and Colyn Seeley place 1st in the AFRL STEM Challenge Competition. They presented their topic challenge, Hyperdimensional computing today, preparing all week long for the challenge. Their teacher is Albert Bangs.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate, in conjunction with the Griffiss Institute (GI), sponsored the 15th Annual Challenge Competition as one of the joint STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiatives, April 10-14. The 2023 Annual Challenge Competition took place at the Innovare Advancement Center in the Rome business park.
This competition serves as a way for students to utilize their math and science skills for real world problems that AFRL personnel are researching. The RFA student team of Kenneth Davis and Colyn Seeley, presented their topic challenge, “Hyperdimensional computing (HDC)” on April 14th and came in 1st place!
Their teacher is Albert Bangs, technology teacher at RFA. “My two students have given up their spring break, 8 hours a day, to compete in this challenge,” said Bangs.
This year the challenge was Hyperdimensional computing (HDC), a relatively new approach to artificial intelligence. HDC tries to mimic some aspects of the brain functioning more closely using algebra equations for performing machine learning. HDC is a fancy name for vectors of huge dimensionality, typically 10,000. These vector compositions create a powerful system of computing that can be used to perform, in addition to classical tasks, sophisticated cognitive tasks such as object detection, language and object recognition, voice and video classification, time series analysis, text categorization, and analytical reasoning.
“They had to learn about the topic in a very short time frame and the math was very complex. It seemed like easy algebra but then it exploded into something much more difficult. The students were able to pick it up and piece it together. They had to learn to code the program fast. They had to develop a lot of skills very quickly. To complete the challenge, they had to pull together this new knowledge with everything that they’ve been doing throughout school for years to make it work,” said Bangs.
“This experience really helps with your real-world application as well because we used a lot of resources from school into this competition. Here we actually used a lot of skills that we didn’t think we would need and scoffed at the time we were learning them. It’s a real different environment because you are here every day for an entire week working 8 hours a day,” said Seeley.
Prizes were 1st place team $3,000 scholarship; 2nd: $2,000; 3rd: $1,000 and 4th. 5th and 6th: $500.
Air Force Research Laboratory - AFRL Griffiss Institute - Innovare Elevation Series Griffiss Institute
Davis will be attending Binghamton University, studying Quantitative Finance. Seeley will be attending RIT majoring in Mechanical Engineering.
In addition to RFA, Central Valley, Holland Patent, Whitesboro, Holy Cross Academy and Westmoreland also participated in the challenge competition.
Sources: Michiel Stock and IBM
Practicing their presentation
Kenneth Davis works on algebra equations.
Colyn Seeley presents to the judges today.
Awards Ceremony L to R: Nathan McDonald, mathematician, Information Directorate, AFRL; students: Kenneth Davis and Colyn Seeley; Heather Hage, President and CEO, Griffiss Institute and Keynote speaker, Dr. Michael Hayduk, Deputy Director, Information Directorate, AFRL.
L to R: Teacher, Albert Bangs, students Colyn Seeley and Kenneth Davis.