Two teams of students from Moldova put our country on the international stage in the field of artificial intelligence this year, in the INTEL AI Global Impact Festival competition. The teams’ participation became possible because the students studied the optional subject “Artificial Intelligence”, developed within the “Tekwill in Every School” project. Around 500 students from 25 educational institutions are studying the optional subject “Artificial Intelligence in Schools” this academic year.
Two teams, consisting of students Ciprian Meriacre and Daniela Balutel, from the “Aristotel” Theoretical High School in mun. Chisinau, and Eduard Balamatiuc and Daria Gheorghieș from the Theoretical High School “Iulia Hasdeu” from mun. Chisinau, placed this year the Republic of Moldova on the international stage in the field of artificial intelligence, within the INTEL AI Global Impact Festival competition.
The INTEL AI Global Impact Festival competition is organized annually by INTEL and aims to digitally train next generation technologists and teachers, as well as academic, ecosystem and government partners to showcase AI innovation and impact. In the competition students develop products and services, through which they involve the field of artificial intelligence in solving problems in social, cultural, educational and other fields.
At this year’s INTEL AI Global IMPACT Festival competition, teams competed with approximately 220 students and teachers from 24 countries, and each winning student will be awarded $500.
The winning team in the 13-18 age category, consisting of students Ciprian Meriacre and Daniela Băluțel, guided by Ms. Marcela Papuc, a computer science teacher from the Republican Theoretical High School “Aristotel” in mun. Chisinau, developed the project “AGROOTS: Accessible Agriculture” as a solution to the problem of agricultural losses caused by climate change and unstable global weather. In their artificial intelligence project, the students combined data from scientific sources on weather, agricultural products and climate hazards to produce impressive results. The students’ project comes with a forecast accuracy of over 90% for an agricultural season. The user-friendly interface provides easy access to all project data, including weather forecasts, climate hazard forecasts, and recommendations for good growing and harvesting times.
The winning team in the 18+ age category of students Eduard Balamatiuc and Daria Gheorghieș, guided by Ms Viorica Moglan, a computer science teacher, focused on the issue of environmental pollution in relation to global warming and the excessive amount of plastic used across the globe. Thus, the team from “Iulia Hasdeu” High School in mun. Chisinau, have developed their project “Automotive Trash Detection” which aims to improve the process of automatic identification and sorting of waste both from photos and videos and from live images, in various conditions and spaces, on most types of waste, using Computer Vision technology.
Note that both teams have won first and third place in the national competition “Tekwill Junior Ambassadors”, organized in April 2022 by “Tekwill in Every School”, developing ecological and agrarian solutions using tools provided by Artificial Intelligence.
We specify that the previous year Mr. Dorin Sas, a computer science teacher at the high school “Mihai Eminescu” from Slobozia Mare village, Cahul r., won the country prize in the same competition INTEL AI Global Impact Festival in the category of teachers.
The participation of the teams from the Republic of Moldova became possible due to the fact that the students studied the optional subject “Artificial Intelligence”, developed within the project “Tekwill in Every School” and approved by the Ministry of Education and Research in 2020, based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed on 22 July 2020. About 500 students from 25 educational institutions are studying this academic year the optional subject “Artificial Intelligence in Schools”.
The Ministry of Education and Research is a partner of the “Tekwill in Every School” project, and the mutual contribution helps to develop a generation of young people better prepared for the future and the labour market.
The participation of the teams in the international competition was possible thanks to the study of the professions of the future within the Tekwill in Every School project implemented by Tekwill in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Moldova and with the support of external development partners USAID Moldova, Embassy of Sweden in Chisinau, European Union in the Republic of Moldova UNDP Moldova.
