T-CAIREM hosts “Ask a Scientist” session for Toronto high school students

In July, the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) at the University of Toronto launched its inaugural “Ask a Scientist” session for grade 11 and 12 summer co-op students studying information technology at Toronto’s George S. Henry Academy.

“I was surprised that you could use AI to read facial structures and diagnose certain conditions,“ said Henry Academy student Vinojan Vijayaranjan. “I knew that facial recognition could be used in a lot of specific ways, but I wouldn't have guessed this was one of things that was possible.” 

The one-hour Zoom session was organized by T-CAIREM Education, Learner Co-Leads Felipe Morgado and Vinyas Harish, who are both enrolled in the MD/PhD program at the U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“Medical AI is a rapidly growing field, but it’s still an unexplored topic for many secondary school students,” said T-CAIREM’s Morgado. “We wanted to showcase the diversity of medical AI research conducted by T-CAIREM trainees and demystify the academic training path.”

After presenting the public high school students with a brief introduction on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine and its potential to transform healthcare in the future, five university students from the T-CAIREM Summer Student Research Program discussed their paths to becoming medical AI researchers and answered questions from the younger students.

The session was quite inspiring for the older researchers according to U of T medical student Brian Bursic. “It was very nice to see so many young, bright individuals interested in the intersection of AI and medicine. I hope they took away the idea that AI is applicable to many diverse disciplines and that they should pursue a discipline that is meaningful to them!”

The high schoolers also impressed organizer Morgado. “The students already appreciate some of the fundamental challenges of AI research without being AI researchers themselves. Clearly, the next generation of scientists in this field will hit the ground running.”

T-CAIREM summer researchers come from universities across Canada to work with a U of T faculty member on an AI in medicine project. In addition to Bursic, other T-CAIREM summer researchers who participated during the “Ask a scientist” session included Harsukh Benipal (MD, University of Toronto), Samira Adus (MD, University of Toronto), Allen Li (MD, University of Ottawa), and Thomas Samson (BSc, Wilfrid Laurier University). 
 
Judging from the reaction of high school student Vithushika Kokilarajan, the future of AI looks like it will be in good hands. “I was not expecting there to be so much application of AI in the medical field but the session really opened my eyes to how technology can be realistically used to help people! Although I had already come into the co-op program wanting to enter the technology field, the "Ask a Scientist" session introduced me to a lot more career options that aren't just coding/programming software and games!”