Press Releases

LOWELL, MA - Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (D-MA-03) announced $1,496,893 in grant funding made to the Concord Consortium.

The grant will support a school curriculum that will provide students with firsthand experience on how narrative modeling, one of the oldest fields in artificial intelligence, can be developed. This project, entitled "Narrative Modeling with StoryQ: Integrating Mathematics, Language Arts, and Computing to Create Pathways to Artificial Intelligence Careers,” is under the direction of Jie Chao. The award starts Jun. 01, 2020.

This project is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build deeper understanding of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. Rep. Trahan is a strong supporter of the National Science Foundation (NSF) which supports research, innovation, and discovery that provides the foundation for economic growth in our nation.

“I am very proud of the Concord Consortium for its work in ensuring underrepresented populations across our District are able to access opportunities in STEM and, more specifically, unlocking artificial intelligence technologies. Strong STEM investments in our youth are imperative to keeping pace with an ever-changing economic landscape,” said Congresswoman Lori Trahan. 

"Today's workforce is powered by artificial intelligence technologies, yet AI learning opportunities remain abstract and inaccessible, especially to underrepresented youth. Our new StoryQ project is leveraging data exploration and text mining technologies to engage students in authentic AI practices in an accessible, relatable, and empowering way,” said Principal Investigator Jie Chao. 

Chad Dorsey, President and CEO of the nonprofit Concord Consortium, said, "It's exciting to be working with this project because the topic is so important. Students need to understand how artificial intelligence is built into computers and gain experience working with and preparing data in ways that allow computers to identify meaningful patterns. With StoryQ, we're equipping today's learners for the AI workforce of tomorrow.”

You can learn more about the Concord Consortium here.

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