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What is AI4YOUTH Canada?
Our Mission
AI4Youth Canada is a Canadian federally registered nonprofit dedicated to connect high school students with professors and influential industry leaders in artificial intelligence across Canada and promoting AI related experiential learning opportunities.
Our Story
AI4Youth Canada is a non-profit student run organization based in Calgary, Alberta. It was founded by Claire Du and Gerry Lu in June 2018. Led by their strong passion for AI, Claire and Gerry ran a peer student survey about AI awareness, then founded Western Canada High School AI Club earlier, which was the first ever high school AI club in Canada. After seeing both the very limited AI learning resources, especially the experiential learning resources that accessible to high school students and the thirsty pressing demands from students, Claire and Gerry motivated to make efforts to change and founded AI4YOUTH CANADA, they hope to combine forces to create opportunities for their peers and see more Canadian youth become leaders, innovators and game changers in AI integrated future.
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Claire Du
Co-Founder
Western Canada High School
Claire is a recent graduate from Western Canada High School and is now studying Mechanical Engineering at Stanford Univeristy. Fascinated by robots since elementary school, Claire has been involved in the FIRST Robotics program as a team captain, programmer, and mentored a youth robotics team. By applying her knowledge, creativity, and problem solving abilities, she hopes to inspire many to think radically about making the world a better place with technology. Combining her experience as a national level rhythmic gymnast, she innovated a carpet lifting machine that solved a labor problem for her club. Recognizing the imperative need for AI learning and as a representative for the CBE Student Advisory Council, she proposed to integrate AI fundamental courses into high school curriculums. After starting her school AI club, she worked further with like-minded individuals and founded AI4Youth Canada to empower youth across the nation to proactively become change-makers in our AI-integrated world.
Gerry Lu
Co-Founder
Western Canada High School
Gerry is a recent graduate from Western Canada HIgh School and now is studying at Babson College. Gerry has always loved to work with anything that evolves technology. Gerry hopes to reach out to all people and help to better the world using his talents and interests. These interests lead Gerry to publish a research paper about the future use of Artificial Intelligence in the Accounting and Law business sectors with the IEEE Student Forum and attending the Universal Village Conference at MIT where he presented on his paper. Gerry also joined First Robotics Team 4334, working on the programmer team, and build team, further he has volunteered as a Sunday School teacher since 2013 at the church he attends on a weekly basis. On top of academia, Gerry has always had a love of sports, mainly Basketball which he has played on a team for 6 years, and Baseball which he played for 3 years. After founding an AI club at Western Canada High School with Claire, he has made it a person mission to help all people regardless of any differences to have a understanding of the future role of technology and AI in order to improve lives everywhere and has perused this goal by founding AI4Youth Canada.
Youssef El Mays
Director of External
Sir Winston Churchill
Youssef is a Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill High School. He is a philomath who enjoys a vast range of activities from music to athletics. Youssef is passionate about a variety of topics concerning web development, machine analytics and AI. He spends his free time learning about neuroscience, computer science and biochemistry. As he continues his last year of secondary education, he continues to stay involved in various academic communities like MENSA and AI4 Youth Canada. Youssef hopes to continue providing his expertise in data analytics and website development as the Chief of Tech for The Written Revolutions
Nicholas Wilger
Regional Director
Webber Academy
Nicholas Wilger is a recent graduate from Calgary's Webber Academy and is now studying Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. From a young age, he has been fascinated with technology — the Gameboys and iPods of his childhood slowly giving way to self-built desktops. In high school, Nicholas was an accomplished competitor in his school's Debate and MUN clubs, vice-president in student government, and an avid participant in several STEM extracurriculars and contests. Going forward, Nicholas is eager to be a part of technological and aerospace developments He is excited to share those interests with like-minded students across Canada as part of the AI4Youth team.
Jonathan Zhou
CEO | Regional Director
Western Canada High School
Jonathan is a grade 12 full IB student at Western Canada High school. He's the Team Captian and Lead Programmer for team 210Y, a VEX Robotics team that he started with a friend from school in 2019. Under Jonathan's leadership, 210Y ranked top 2 in the world in the 2020-2021 season out of 22,000 teams and won the prestigious innovate award at the World Championship. 210Y has won over 17+ trophies and is the first-ranked team in all of Western Canada. Outside of 210Y, Jonathan is passionate about sharing his love of robotics with his community and peers. He started his own robotics non-profit organization, Western Mechatronics, when he realized that there were virtually no opportunities for students in Alberta to get involved in Vex Robotics (only 6 schools offer it.) Through Western Mechatronics, Jonathan has impacted over 1000 students internationally through free online lessons, hands-on programs, and innovative summer camps. As the new CEO, Jonathan is excited to lead Ai4Youth and empower the next generation of AI leaders.
Iris Xu
Director of Marketing
Port Moody Secondary
Iris Xu is a grade 12 International Baccalaureate student at Port Moody Secondary in Port Moody, BC. From competing nationally in badminton, cooking up some edible masterpiece in the kitchen, to teaching kids on the ski hills, Iris can be found challenging herself in every way possible. Last year, she joined rookie FIRST Robotics team 7781 as a lead designer. Not only did she design a functional and reliable bot, she also taught herself to program with languages such as Java and Python along the way. Currently, Iris is using those skills to develop an android app for foodies like herself. Indeed, Iris has a passion for technology and wants to be part of the next “technological revolution”. For her, that starts with spreading awareness of all the endless possibilities AI has to offer. After meeting Claire at SHAD Waterloo (a month-long STEM camp) and realizing some common interests - AI and robots, Iris has been given the wonderful opportunity to work with an amazing team at AI4Youth, aiming to educate and empower youth to become AI leaders of the future.
Bonita Shao
Social Media Manager
Port Moody Secondary
Bonita Shao is a Grade 10 student attending Port Moody Secondary School. She is an avid participant and advocate for youth involvement in the technological and business world. She volunteers and helps run many youth-led nonprofit organizations. Outside of school, Bonita enjoys competing in business case competitions and public speaking. After finding out about the conference, she was determined to spread it amongst youth. Bonita finds technology imperative in daily life and believes that AI will be certain in the near future. Although she is currently in charge of social media, Bonita enjoys programming and has taught herself Python. At age six she began fiddling with robotics, and recently started working with Arduino. Bonita is excited to be able to take part and share her passion for AI and the AI4YOUTH conference.
Christopher Eng
Regional Director
Mount Douglas Secondary
Christopher Eng studied at Mount Douglas Secondary School. Designated gifted at a young age, he excelled in the school district gifted program yet recognized the lack of opportunities in his local school system; thus, he decided to create his own opportunities, self-studying for 6 AP exams, achieving countless perfect scores in US college entrants standardized exams (SAT and AP Subject Tests), winning a national mathematics and science competition, earning a gold medal for clarinet from the Royal Conservatory of Music, winning a school talent show, achieving his school's badminton team MVP, and founding three clubs in high school. From coaching youth basketball camps to volunteering at a senior's care home, Chris invests himself in a plethora of interests, utilizing his passion in each area to benefit those around him. After meeting Claire and Iris at SHAD and realizing a dire yet surmountable challenge in the lack of AI-education in Canada, Chris is dedicated to continuing the AI4Youth Canada mission, hoping to truly benefit more youth across Canada through provincial conferences in British Columbia. With this expansion, the opportunities for Canadian youth are truly endless; Chris is ecstatic to witness the monumental growth of both AI4Youth Canada and AI-education in Canada in the very near future.
Lulu Zhang
Regional Director
Mount Douglas Secondary
As she enters her grade 12 year at Mount Douglas Secondary, Lulu is elated to join AI4Youth and looks forward to working with the team to help engage more youth into the fast-developing AI industry. Outside of AI4Youth, Lulu is drawn to a wide variety of extracurriculars to strengthen her belief for cultural diversity and global affairs. Having the honour to receive the School Service Award for the past three years, Lulu has been the head coordinator for the school Multicultural Day, 30-Hour Famine, and Pink Shirt Day as the Foreign Affairs Minister of Student Council. She has been the Victoria Chinatown Walking Tour Guide, the School Head of the registered non-profit Girls Can Talk Society, secretariate of school Model United Nations, school first-place debater for the World Scholar’s Cup 2018, and a cheerleader in her freshman and sophomore year. Lulu can also be found playing badminton, tutoring English Language Learners, completing her Royal Conservatory of Music piano ARCT exam, volunteering overseas at Tibetan elementary schools, and constantly visiting different restaurants to keep her food account up to date. By taking on these roles, Lulu is expanding her reverence by gathering students to work together and achieve efficacious things that could never be accomplished by herself; whether it is appreciating different cultures, fasting for 30 hours to fundraise for food security in Africa, standing up against bullying, or expanding her views and integrating more youth like herself into the prodigious and pivotal area of technology and AI that’s often being overlooked in our current secondary education.
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Eric Gong
Regional Director
Westmount Charter
Eric Gong is a Grade 9 student at Westmount Charter School in Calgary, Alberta. From a young
age, Eric has always been fascinated by science and technology. He has been competing in the
First Lego League competition since Grade 4, and has since obtained numerous coding and
robotics accolades, including placing on the Honour Roll of the University of Waterloo Canadian
Coding Competition. Eric is passionate about sharing his expertise with others, which is why he
is the founder, team captain, and lead programmer of the team Legotronics, which won first
place in Calgary in 2017 and the Best Project Award in Edmonton in 2018. He is currently
coaching a robotics team at Westmount Charter School and an all-girl FLL team, Tech-No-Logic
Robotics, which won the Regional Championship Award and qualified for the 2020 FLL
International Open tournament in Brazil. Robotics aside, Eric is passionate about honing his
communication skills through public speaking and debate. He is a six-year Alberta gold medal
recipient from the RCM Speech Exam, and holds the Team Debate Championship from the 2019
World Scholar’s Cup Tournament of Champions held at Yale University. Eric believes that in
the future, AI will be implemented in the medical field, and he hopes to be a part of that budding
world of innovation. He is excited to be working with AI4Youth, and is looking forward to
connecting with similarly passionate youth, as well as educating students across the country.
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Jordan Khoo
Director of External
Jordan Khoo is a Grade 10 Student at Western Canada High School. Jordan is engaged in a wide variety of athletic and academic activities. He has been playing Water Polo competitively for 4 years now and swims competitively across Alberta. Jordan has represented Canada, Calgary, and Alberta in Surrey, Vancouver, Regina, Edmonton, Orange County, and Los Angeles, winning 3rd for the Alberta Provincial team in California at the HALE tournament. Besides athletics, Jordan spends his time competing in MUN and Debate, winning a speaking award at the SWCMUN tournament. He also loves competing in Case competitions and Company programs with JA and most recently at FUSE society, winning first place in his very first Case competition. Jordan also volunteers at other non-profit organizations including debate societies and humanitarian ones such as BB4CK. Recently, Jordan has focused his energy on technology and realized the benefits to the upcoming generation of youth. He is self-taught in C++ and Python, game/graphics design with 3D engines such as Unity and Unreal, and was recently accepted into the FIRST Robotics team PHAT CACHE 7799 as part of their programming design team. Besides this, Jordan also loves fiddling around with simple systems such as Raspberry Pi and Makeblock Robot Systems. Jordan is excited to be a part of the team at Ai4Youth and help expand the reach of AI4Youth to more Canadian youth!