BEAVERTON, Ore. (KATU) — Vihaan Kapoor just started his senior year at Westview High School in Beaverton, and he’s already on his way to making the world a better place.
“People always say like, ‘Oh, you can change the world, you have the power to change the world.’ But it’s different when you actually realize that you can,” says Vihaan.
When Vihaan was in middle school, he says he got interested in artificial intelligence andmachine learning, which is teaching a robot to do human-like tasks.
“I was trying to search out resources and find out what it is and how I can learn myself, but everything I came across was really complex and I didn’t understand it, and so, I was always wishing for there to be someone to teach me, someone my age, to relate to,” says Vihaan.
After he taught himself with online courses and YouTube videos, Vihaan decided to spread his knowledge to others.
“The best learning can happen when you’re equals and not when someone is trying to assert authority over you or something,” Vihaan says.
In 2022, Vihaan founded the501(c)(3) nonprofit NorthWest Data Science Collective to teach his peers how to use artificial intelligence in the real world. He offers two, eight-week semesters with sessions every Saturday. It’s all online, and it’s free. To date, Vihaan says his 10 tutors have created over 60 hours of content to help over 100 students in three countries.
“Doctors are using AI and machine learning — sports, statisticians, they’re using AI, too. It’s everywhere, and I think that the younger these kids realize this is the future and it’s a part of everything we do, it will be a lot more helpful for them to get a head start on it and be prepared for what’s coming,” says Vihaan.
Vihaan has even experienced this himself in the real world. He says he just completed an internship as a data scientist at OHSU.
“The lab I worked in, the whole goal was to create a new vaccine for malaria that’s affordable and cheaper and more effective, so the work I’m doing could literally save lives,” Vihaan says.
He has even published a book titled “Code Breakers: Unlocking the secrets of data science“with a second book on the way.
Vihaan’s next semester of sessions starts on Saturday, Sept. 28.
