McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics hosts generative AI competition for high school students

McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston held their inaugural generative AI prompt engineering competition on Thursday, July 25. The free event drew 31 Houston-area high school students who participated in the opportunity to delve into the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“We wanted to provide the students with some early exposure to generative AI technologies, and to try fostering a curiosity for AI and its applications in real-world scenarios,” said Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics. Jiang is the Christopher Sarofim Family Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Bioengineering at the school as well as associate vice president for Medical AI at UTHealth Houston.

The day began with an introduction to AI and its current state by Susan Fenton, PhD, professor and vice dean for education, director of the Center for Quality Health IT Improvement, and the Dr. Doris L. Ross Professor at the school. That was followed by a discussion of ethics and an overview of McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics, led by Jiang.

The instructors set up a ChatGPT environment for student use, and also arranged for the students to interact with a game bot and the school’s robot that is in development.

For the competition, students wrote innovative and engaging prompts for a generative AI model. The competition produced a variety of creative ideas, ranging from generating poems and stories to creating code and even simulating conversations.

“We were impressed by the high level of creativity and technical understanding displayed by the students,” Fenton said. “We evaluated the entries based on the originality of the prompts, the quality of the generated content, and the students’ understanding of AI and prompt engineering.”

All three of the top finishers in the competition attend Houston Episcopal High School. Rising junior Addison Edwards earned first place, while rising senior Alexander Gonzales finished second and rising senior Mary Carolyn Conrad was third. Conrad is hoping to study biomedicine in college, and participated in the event to learn more about how AI is already impacting that field.

“AI is such a fascinating topic, and I think that by the time I get to college, it will be having a big impact in everything that we do to learn,” Conrad said.

The children of three UTHealth Houston staff and faculty members participated in the event, including Dr. Jiang’s daughter Ashley Jiang, who attends Pearland Junior High West. Rising juniors Madeline Phillips of Fort Bend Travis High School and Whitney Hargrave of Barbers Hill High School also took part in the competition.