Virtually Visiting the White House Again: About One Week Till the Deadline
Disclaimer: Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics: Childhood, Education, Teens, Teaching, Justice, Ethics, Meeting, Teachers, Ambition, Zoom, Awareness, AI, Competitions
I’m back at the White House, virtually per usual. And my AI Education for Youth proposal is near completion. We’ve got two more “office hours” available (we, the people submitting proposals for this event) and then time is up and it’s off to the judges. Admittedly, I’ve been WAY more distracted these last few weeks than I ever could have imagined (see the last post if you’re curious on that one) - but, good came out of it. I really like how my proposal has evolved, and I am excited to hear what others have to say in this meeting. I’ll take some notes, write some jokes, and keep working on this proposal. Once the meeting is over, I’m off to pick up my daughter, make dinner with her, and chill!! Then… tomorrow morning, I’ll go busk! hahha. I like my life lately. Especially now that I’m independent again.
Why Attend: For the money!! JK, the prize money for this is not too much, but it’s just a great cause IMO. I was talking to AI a bit lately about how so much I do isn’t even for the money, its for the purpose. I’m proud of myself for making decisions and living my life in a way that is values-focused, more than financially. Whether it’s my investing style or how I spend my time - and/or the ways I’m allowing myself to make income, they all align with my values and my truth. I’m proud of that and want to get even more value-driven each day. I’m excited to attend this session with the White House team and hope my proposal inspires the team in the end. It has inspired me - hahaha. So, that’s good. Wanna know my proposal? I’ll see if I’m allowed to share it - and if so, I’ll make a blog on it to share my exact proposal. :)
Photo Collage and Commentary:
Notes from the Event:
My questions:
Are you more interested in proofs of concept or near-deployment tools?
How are you thinking about judging impact in a first-year program — proof of concept, policy relevance, or scalability?
“In this first year of the challenge, what kind of proposal do you most hope to select?”
(I didn’t ask them all)
I’m in the final week and feeling a bit lost about how to use this time well. Since this is the first year and things are still taking shape, what’s one thing you think applicants should focus on right now?
I did end up asking this one and the answer was complicated. Hahha. I’m like, oh boy. This won’t be easy. But, duh. It’s the white house.
Media submission component beyond the written narrative, it doesn’t have to be a video but it can be. It can also just be a google slideshow, or a website, or a phone app (the judge would have to side-load an app?). Could it also be a screencast walkthrough of a custom TBT, like a link to a GPT in the public store for open AI or any other service?
My question: “Is it okay if my proposal focuses more on a proof of concept than a fully built-out product?”
Just writing notes there. Didn’t ask yet.
To win the prize and show off abilities, a video would be great. But worse case would a website with a URL work so that judges can type in the address… woudl that be considered the media on top of the narrative, or are you looking for a video? Or are you looking for a slideshow?
In the eventual document, the PDF, it can have an external link to the coding or the project you made. Then judges can review the code.
This lets judges interact with it if it’s intractable.
They don’t want to be too restrictive in terms of what media formats qualify.
Can our submissions be public? If judges can get to it, is it fine.
We’re going to see a lot of that format.
Another guy had a question and he doesn’t want to cut anyone in line, but they say they don’t know what order people entered so they’ll take everyone in any order.
His question is wondering about the technical proposal and solution. Outside of what the solution and architecture will look like, are there expectations for codes and model names? Trying to get a sense of how deep the plan and solution need to be.
Age-appropriate is assumed. Would prefer a thorough understanding of concepts involved over knowing how to code this specific things. That all changes. But good fundamentals is the most important thing. But that’s just one guy’s personal view, not sure what others will view.
I’m like thinking, oh crap… i’m the top age for this… so, geeze. I need to do a lot more work to get at “the level” they’re looking for.
For many people, especially high schoolers, they’re doing things for the very first time.
-Talk about the problem that is being solved and how the technology can help.
-And if you’re not finding more restrictions in the rules and rubrics, it’s probably cause they don’t want to limit what can be in your poster. Let this be your freedom license to include what you like.
-For the poster, specifically, think as if it were a science/engineering fair. Things won’t go right the first time, goals will shift… but how to do you iterate that? Present the main idea clearly. That’s the main goal. The specific details of the presentation itself aren’t the most important thing.
I’m like wahT? a poster (but its not required for mine. for mine, i need to make a video!)
Lots of people here today. Usually it’s only a few extra peopel but now they are 14 people. Last time there were only 2 of us.
People are asking how to submit videos with the PDF (but I think that’s in the rubric).
One lady said she’s started over like 6 times with her son on their project, she said they might not get something submitted on time. So how do you demonstrate the iterations they’ve been through.
The storytelling, the iterative process, the judges will recognize that’s part of the process. It may be even more powerful of a narrative than a project that was successful on the first round. It’s even more ambitious.
There are two forms to fill out, a media grant form… once you submit those will you get an email back? Then within a few hours of registering you should get an email back.
Submission of forms will trigger an email. But there is no acknowledgment of registering the first time. Then you’ll get peernet links.
Registration confirmed - then need the submission link to upload.
Yeah as expected, lots of peopel have questions about submitting things and confirmation.
I’m like… uh, am I even registered. I think so but now i’m overthinking.
Only things listed in the rubric can be considered in the scoring guidelines.
The submission link will be emailed when? They’re looking into it and will share in the chat ASAP.
- The poster and media are different elements.
Game the rubric, unofficially, but follow the rubric and work backward.
Not all of the tracks need posters.
Receive a reply to submit the consent forms in peernet - consent form. Probably won’t hurt to register two times (you will get a reply, submission link won’t be emailed until all consent forms - even supervising adults are submitted) - then the link becomes avail
I asked my question and one lady told me:
Not technically savvy, there are lots of open source utilities, agentic AI you can plug in and play. Copilot where you can do the code (but I don’t want to do a code that I don’t know what it means).
Most of it is vibe coding. Most isn’t going into coding.
I’m like omg her answer stressed me out even more. I just wanna tell them my idea and have them do the work for ittttt. I know its not hard. Youtube AI already summarizes its own vidoes, they just need to be more honest about their incentives and manipulation and propaganda. lol.
But if this were real life, woudl red flag everywhere - saying don’t use this in the real world. But this isn’t real life, it’s a competition. The use and validation of the AI tools seems most relevant.
Lol that judge is funny.
But that’s only 15%, there’s another 85%. So no specific advice other what was suggested, prompt engineering. Talk about how AI tools enhance their teaching style, just everyday teachers across the curriculum.
Coming up with how to put a plan in progress, whether the plans fully realized or not.
One guy says his advisor isn’t here but he wants to be in his advisor’s zoom room!? - wow! Who knew some people had advisors. LOL.
The rubric provided is the extent of details they have on scoring guidelines. Judges can’t be subjective beyond what the rubric provides.
You can make a video of how you’d teach this to students, or lots of other ways you can make the video
My plan is to make the video really comedic.
Don’t make the judges have to think. Be explicit and clearly state things in your sentence. Clearly state how things align with the presidents priorities in your sentences. Clearly make your points sentence by sentence.
This is such good advice for turning in anything. So true.
So it might make sense to look into even more priorities of the administration.
Time runs out and they can’t get to everyone’s questions. But it’s time to leave the breakout room but they said once you get into the main room you can find out how to ask more questions.
Let’s see how many people are in the main room! 43 people.
Wow and then they shut it right there hahah They said you can email but didn’t give the email. Okay, well. Here we go!! It was useful but this competition is almost over!!! Feels like it just started. Time to go get my daughter.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
