Blog Post
Advanced solutions as the result of Pi School’s first Artificial Intelligence programme
On 7th December 2017, Pi School celebrated the final presentations of its Artificial Intelligence Programme, and its 13 most talented engineers graduated from the school.
For almost 8 weeks and up until a matter of days before the programme started, significant challenges, problems, projects and tasks were identified. The goal was for a select group of top engineers to apply AI and come up with innovative and cutting-edge approaches and solutions. This first major step would not have been possible without the amazing support of companies such as Amazon, PwC, Kingcom, Translated and many more, who not only opened their doors to us with major strategic challenges they were facing, but also took responsibility and provided the participants with this unique experience by providing full grants to cover their programme fees.
Seeking out real projects and having clients provide financial support for participants are two of the main ingredients Pi School uses to shape the experience and provide a journey through design. The villa as a principal and supplementary learning facility, the mixture of practical work, lectures, peer work and group work, and above all the irreplaceable contribution of exceptional mentors such as Lukasz Kaiser from Google Brain and Max Pumperla from Skymind ensured that the programme was an unforgettable (and intense!) 8 weeks for the participants.
“I am extremely proud of the participants. Remember when everything looked impossible at the beginning?”
On the last evening of the programme, the participants pitched the results of their hard work to a selected audience: programme supporters, some of the mentors, clients and other key stakeholders. New talents looking to be chosen for the next edition of the AI programme and fresh clients with extraordinary new challenges were also in attendance, and they found themselves pleasantly surprised by the scale of the progress made and the achievements being presented in the professional 2.5-minute pitches. This was the moment when the participants demonstrated that they had not only coded hard over the past 8 weeks, but also honed their skills when it comes to entrepreneurship, pitching ideas, presenting results and impressing potential investors, just as any brilliant startupper would want to do.
At the end, the Pi School was proud to announce the graduation of 13 fantastic engineers whose continued success will undoubtedly have a major impact on our planet. Young talents who connected with one another on a very productive level and established the foundations of new global relationships. These individuals will go back to their homes with a head full of new memories, whether it’s the cooking class, the street art tour, attending classes on leadership values by the villa’s pool, discussing team effectiveness in the Pi Campus park, or something else. All these experiences fit alongside the core focus on coding amazing solutions based on artificial intelligence.
It is time for Pi School to thank all the companies involved, all the mentors for their dedication, all the lecturers, and all the participants for being such amazing talents. The next edition will have a brilliant example to look back at and learn from. Get an invite!