CTVNews | Calgary high school students compete in finals of national AI challenge
Ten teams from across the country competed at the University of Calgary Friday for the 2025 National High School Big Data and AI Challenge Finals, with projects aimed at tackling serious problems including youth suicides, teen drug use, and school shootings.
Manuscript Reviewers:
During the program, we offer professional analysis and feedback on the initial literature reviews and conduct a comprehensive blind peer review of student manuscripts.
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the leading industry and academic experts who generously volunteered their time to provide unbiased reviews of all student submissions.
Sanjay Arumugam Jaganmohan, MSBA
Director Global OT Cybersecurity,
Coca-Cola Co.
Wayne Groszko, Ph.D.
Applied Energy Research Scientist Nova Scotia Community College, Dalhousie University Prof.
Tuoyu (Tony) W., Ph.D.
Geology Scholar and Lecturer McMaster University
Lindsey Daniels, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Teaching, University of British Columbia
Benjamin Kelly, Ph.D.
Assistant professor at Nipissing University
Liza Babaoglu, MASc
Teaching and Research Assistant University of Toronto
Uzma Maroof, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Waterloo
Western Canada Finals, Calgary, AB
January 31, 2025
University of Calgary Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking
Finalists’ Manuscripts
Using AI to Mitigate Bias Between Student Demographics and Extracurricular Courses: An Analysis on the Accessibility of Extracurricular Activities and Social Inequities Among Adolescents
Students: Jasper Knoll, Vibhu Vemana, Piaoyi Wu, Elias Yajure, and Ronald Li
School: Westmount Charter School, Webber Academy
Examining the Impact of Digital Access Disparities on Educational Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global Analysis
Students: Shazain Wasif, Taysir Bhura, Mofe Omolade, and Farhan Chowdhury
School: Westmount Charter School
Winner: CISCO Tech Award
Winner: Canadian Commission of UNESCO Scholarly Communication Award in memoriam of Mohammad and Zeynab
Judges:
Stephanie Bach
Vice President, Strategy
and Policy, Diplomat Consulting
Shreya Patel
Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft
Vivek Saahil
Manager – Strategic Business Analysis, Planning & Support, Pratt & Whitney Canada
Aditya Nittala
PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Wally Eng
Senior Solution Consultant at UKG
Guests/Dignitaries:
Her Honour, Salma Lakhani
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
Joanne Pitman
Chief Superintendent, The Calgary Board of Education
David Lapides
Vice President, Programs, Let’s Talk Science
Dr. Joel Martin
Chief Digital Research Officer & Chief Science Officer, NRC Digital Technologies
Eastern Canada Finals, Toronto, ON
February 7, 2025
Microsoft Canada Headquarters
Finalists’ Manuscripts
Predicting Socioeconomic Disparities Among Adolescents: A Spatial and Computational Analysis of Urban Design Factors
Students: Roshan Iruku, Gurshaan Dhillon, Gurnoor Kaur, Kavangun Kalra, and Rohith Iruku
School: Central Peel Secondary School, North Park Secondary School
Winner: RBC Summer TechLabs Program Interviews
Leveraging Childcare and Early Learning Data to Understand the Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Accessing Resources that Promote Academic Readiness
Students: Khushman Buttar, Jaideep Delow, Riyaz Kaur, Avnoor Dhaliwal, and Girish Nischal
School: Maples Met School
Winner: RBC Arnold Chan Memorial Award for Student Innovation
Judges:
Claire Ephestion
Business Development Manager Networking Academy Canada
Dr. Ashkan Ebadi
Ph.D., SMIEEE, Senior Research Officer, Digital Technologies Research Centre, National Research Council Canada
Andrea Yzeiri
MMA, Chief Data & Analytics Officer and Lead AI Engineer, Picsume
Vivek Saahil
MMA, Principal Lead, Strategy and Analytics, Pratt & Whitney Canada
Noor Lalani
MBA, Customer Success Account Manager, Microsoft
Guests/Dignitaries:
Her Honour, Edith Dumont
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Bonnie Schmidt
CM, PhD, FRSC, ICD.D, President, Let’s Talk Science
Nathalie Rudner
OCT, Executive Director, Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario
Dr. Daniel Gruner
PhD, Chief Technical Officer, SciNet, University of Toronto
Lachmi Singh
PhD, MEd, LL.B, BA, Director, Academic Programs, Planning & Quality Assurance, Office of the Vice-Provost, Academic Programs, University of Toronto
Sonia Sennik
MBA, Chief Executive Officer, Creative Destruction Lab
Awards:
- Academic prizes:
-
Scholarly publication of all project abstracts and full manuscripts publication of winning project papers in the STEM Fellowship Journal, published by Canadian Science Publishing
-
CISCO Academy Tech Award
-
-
Monetary prizes:
-
RBC Arnold Chan Memorial Award for Student Innovation ($1000)
-
CC UNESCO Scholarly Communication Award in memoriam of Mohammad and Zeynab Asadi-Lari ($1000)
-
Let’s Talk Science Analytics Talent Award ($1000)
-
NRC Digital Research Award ($1000)
-
Frequently Asked Questions
Students, parents, or teachers can register students as a team of up to five.
There is a registration fee of $100 per team (If you are registering as part of a registered STEM Fellowship high school chapter, there is a 10% discount on the registration fee, so the new fee is $90).
PayPal or E-transfer:
You can e-transfer the registration fee to us at info@stemfellowship.org. For international participants, you can send us the fee via PayPal at info@stemfellowship.org. Please keep your confirmation number from the paymentsand enter it in the registration form. When e-transferring the registration fee to our email, please enter the full name of at least one registering student in the e-transfer message.
Credit Card:
To pay with credit card, please email ema.jamal@stemfellowship.org to request a custom payment link. Please keep your invoice number and enter it in the registration form.
You do not need any previous experience with programming. We welcome all students who are eager to put effort into learning and expanding their skillsets, as well as those who show any level of interest in data science or the challenge topic. Additionally, we will provide you with access to resources and webinars to learn everything you need to succeed!
We encourage participants to start forming teams before the event. You may attempt to form a team of students at the same high school. It is also recommended to make interdisciplinary teams given the nature of our data challenge topics. You may also register on your own and be placed into a team after registration.
Think about what interests you the most in the field of the provided topic. Read the internet and research articles. In challenges like this one, many teams come up with their topics in the first few days of the challenge, rather than beforehand.
No, students from any country can sign up. The HSBDC is not limited to Canadians.
Yes, students do not necessarily have to represent the high school at which they are studying.
Contact
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us
General Inquiries
bigdata@stemfellowship.org
Related Projects
Support the
Big Data Challenge
As a federal charity, we rely on the generous support of our sponsors to sustain the work we do for Canadian youth. Funds that are donated to STEM Fellowship are appreciated and will be used to support STEM programs, which provide students across the country with unique, inquiry-based, experiential learning opportunities.
