AI for Kids

Replay: How a Fifth-Grader Can Start Their AI Journey Today (Middle +)

• Amber Ivey (AI) • Season 2 • Episode 12

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We are on a short spring break at AI for Kid. We look forward to seeing you all in May. 

In the meantime, check out this replay with Archi Marrapu, a remarkable young inventor. 

• Explaining artificial intelligence as a "fake brain" that can mimic human intelligence and sometimes exceed human capabilities
• Creating Project Pill Tracker, a 3D-printed medication management system with AI features that prevent medication errors
• Working with tools like Arduino Uno kits, 3D printers, Flutter, and coding languages including Java and Python
• Starting with curiosity and coding as entry points to learning about AI
• Building confidence to overcome challenges and persist through failures

Links to Resources:

Contact Archi:

  • Archi Marrapu LinkedIn
  • Email: stemifygirls@gmail.com or founder.stemifygirls@gmail.com

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Amber Ivey:

Welcome to the AI for Kids podcast, where playtime, learning and creating collide bit by bit. Ever wonder how your phone recognizes your face. How does a game learn to get harder as you get better? This is AI. This podcast is designed for kids like you and your human parents, making the complex world of AI easy to understand and, most importantly, fun. So are you ready to unlock the mysteries of artificial intelligence? Subscribe and join us on AI for Kids. Hello friends, today we have a very special guest, Archi Marrapu, a young inventor who loves using something called artificial intelligence or AI to help doctors make people better. Let's give a warm welcome to Archi. Hi, Archi, welcome to the show.

Archi Marrapu:

Hi, it's nice to be here.

Amber Ivey:

I am so excited to have you. I know we originally met at a STEM event somewhere in Maryland I believe we were at a community college college and it was just so impressive all the things that you were working on and I was like I have to figure out a way to talk to you. I know you reached out to possibly be on my other podcast, but so excited to have you here with AI for Kids. Yeah, I'm excited. Awesome, thank you. So can you explain to us in a way that a five-year-old can understand what is AI?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah. So to put it simply, artificial intelligence is when a robot or a piece of technology can mimic human intelligence, so it almost acts like it has a human brain and it can perform some of the same tasks. It can overperform, meaning it can do more than humans can do in some aspects, and it basically can act as another individual with its own set of tasks that it can do and its own set of like characteristics almost.

Amber Ivey:

So what I heard you say is AI is this thing that's similar to humans and it can learn just like we learn. It needs some type of training to base itself off of, but it's a tool that can be in robots and in other places. Is that fair?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, it's literally what it sounds like. So AI stands for artificial intelligence, so it's basically like a fake brain, to put it simply.

Amber Ivey:

I love it. I love it, and talk to me about what's the most interesting thing you've done with this fake brain or artificial intelligence.

Archi Marrapu:

Just a little bit of background. So I do a lot of projects about how we can use AI, or artificial intelligence, in medicine and in health care, but I also used it for a couple projects for just how to improve society overall. To improve society overall. So one of my recent projects was called Voice, and it's a mobile application that lets people train themselves to speak better. It's a public speaking personalized coach that can live inside of your pocket, so that's one of the projects that I'd done recently. It passed a Senate resolution and it was commended by Senator Stella Pekarski and it was a congressional app winner, so I just presented it at the Capitol for the House of Code, so that's one of the cool things I've done with it.

Amber Ivey:

So if I'm a fifth grade student right now and I'm nervous about presenting my science fair project, can I use voice.

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, so how it would work is you would get the app and you would click on the presentation button on the home screen and then you would have a chance to record yourself saying your science for presentation, and you could keep doing it until you reach the level that you want to achieve. It basically allows you to perfect whatever you're trying to do.

Amber Ivey:

That is so awesome. You're trying to do. That is so awesome. I want folks to know about something that I heard happened to you, an experience that you had. I actually found it because I was Googling you preparing for this interview. I heard that your grandfather inspired you to create another AI technology. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what happened?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, so that piece of technology is called Project Pill Tracker, so just wanted to let you know when I referred to it. So what happened? Yeah, so that piece of technology is called Project Pill Tracker, so just wanted to let you know when I refer to it. So what happened was my dad takes prescription medication, so he takes pills for medical condition and it's not too serious for him. So sometimes he forgets if he took his pills or not, and sometimes he takes more than he needs to. Sometimes he skips a dose completely. So it's a little bit complicated.

Archi Marrapu:

But then I really understood how important these prescription medications were when my grandfather suffered from a series of heart and brain strokes and he became completely reliant on these pills. So I started to think oh, what happens if my grandfather also starts skipping his medication, just like my dad is Right, and that was kind of a turning point. So I created Project Pill Tracker and what it is? It's a 3D printed bottle like a pill bottle and a mobile application that work together to holistically manage medication, and it's specifically geared to people who need it the most, so a lot of people with certain medical conditions, elderly people, people who use many medications, so it's very user inclusive, so people with a lot of kinds of medication and a lot of different like medication and medical conditions can use this product, whereas the current product they're not as inclusive and they have a lot of room for human error. So I wanted to bridge that so there's like guarantee for me that, yeah, my grandfather is taking it on a daily basis.

Amber Ivey:

How does this work? You're talking to me about 3D printers, which I know a lot of kids are starting to use, ai, which we're all trying to learn about, because either schools are banning it or we have AI-empowered assistance in our homes. How does this thing work?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, so there's three main components. So there's basically a 3D-printed bottle design with a cap and it has a small dispensing cup on the bottom, and then there is a mobile application which I've coded through Android Studios, and then there's a lot of circuitry system which I usually don't say when I describe Project Pill Tracker, but that's the hero of the project and it uses like an LED light and a buzzer system. So these electronics and this 3D printed bottle and this mobile application so that's basically engineering coding, and in the middle is obviously like circuitry that is connecting both of these parts, all three of these together we allow the user to track their pills. They can identify which pills they need to take, when they can dispense their medication through the bottle. But there's also a lot of cool features and this is where artificial intelligence, or AI, comes in. Project Peel Tracker will actually detect and prevent when people are trying to misuse their medication. So drug abuse prevention is something that actively takes place. A lot of people skip medication on purpose, not because they forget, but because they have financial issues that prevent them from taking it every day, or they have very unpleasant side effects that are sometimes unbearable that are sometimes unbearable. So it also provides an AI chatbot system, so the person who's using Project Peel Tracker can talk to the system and convey their concerns and then it'll give you some suggestions like here are some WebMD articles about these side effects and home remedies for them and please talk to your doctor. But it'll always say talk to your doctor, because that's something that's really important. In the medical field, doctors are someone who you really can't remove from the picture, no matter how advanced technology gets, so that's something that their intervention is always necessary. Other than that, project Pill Tracker also uses AI in a way to give notifications to the users.

Archi Marrapu:

When my dad first started taking his medication, he didn't know what other pills he could take with it, so he didn't know if he could take Tylenol, motrin, ibuprofen, these types of generic medication. He didn't know if he was allowed to take it or not, and he also didn't know what kind of dietary restrictions, what kind of foods, he wasn't supposed to take. Project Pill Tracker the app, will send notifications for the first week and it'll basically say hey, you just took your pills, please don't take these medications until two hours have passed. So basically, it prevents them from making a wrong move and there's also different dispensing options. That's another part where ARI plays a big role. A lot of people with arthritis and neurological conditions. They can't press a button or open a bottle. They don't have that much motor skills, so there's voice recognition, visual recognition and a touch sensor to dispense the pills. So those are just some of the applications of AI that I think are pretty cool.

Amber Ivey:

I love that, especially for kids whose parents are taking pills or kids who are living with their own ailments that require them to take pills the ability to say to the pill bottle so it can recognize my voice, or to dispense medicine at the right time, or to give me information on what other pills I can take. It's just so much information that we all need and we often spend a lot of time Googling and some people don't even Google because they don't think about it and then you end up having other issues. But that is such a cool use of technology. So when you were planning out Project Hill Tracker like, how did you start? Did you start with a drawing? Like what is your design process in implementing this AI tool?

Archi Marrapu:

I actually adapt Stanford design thinking process as my own. I kind of modify it and adjust it to my needs.

Amber Ivey:

What is Stanford design thinking?

Archi Marrapu:

for those who have never heard of that yeah, so Stanford Design Thinking has the components of the innovation process. It starts with empathize. You hear from people around you about what this problem is, and it's basically identifying it. And then define is defining the goal of your product. So what exactly are you trying to achieve to solve this problem? Next is ideate.

Archi Marrapu:

So this is basically your brainstorming, or just jotting down notes on a notepad, so you'll think of thousands of ways or hundreds of ways that you can solve this problem. It's like 2D sketches, 3d sketches and even verbally brainstorming. And then the next stage is called prototyping, and this is when you are either coding your mobile application or you are 3D printing and building, or you're carving and sculpting your wood. So it's basically the hands-on, like building and making your prototype to resemble your final product. And then is the testing stage, and people feel like this is the most strenuous because things either go really good or they usually go really bad, and the really bad scenario is the one that happens many times before you get to the really good part. So this is the part where people usually start getting a little uneasy. They don't like this part, but I actually love it. I enjoy testing and process that keeps going until you have what you want.

Amber Ivey:

And that can take a long time, or it can take a short time, depending on the product which is so cool. So tell me about some of the tools you use. I know you mentioned 3D printers and I think a lot of again a lot of kids are getting 3D printers. I know that was a big thing for the holidays, for people to buy their kids or for birthdays. What are some of the other things you use, either computer programs or other different technologies, that people should know about?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, so as you mentioned 3D printing, it's very prevalent now.

Amber Ivey:

Just in case. I just thought about it, in case someone is new here and have never heard about 3D printing. What is 3D printing?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, so 3D printing is when you take a sketch that you make on paper and then you sketch it on a platform, online.

Archi Marrapu:

So I personally like to use Onshape or Autodesk Inventor, but I also know that, like Tinkercad is another one that I've heard schools using a lot so you convert that into a three dimensional sketch, so you give it not just a height and like a width and a length, but you also give it a depth, so then you can see it as like a 3D shape. And then if you feed that to something called a 3d printer, which is basically like a normal printer, but it'll print it in plastic as a 3d model. So it's a pretty cool piece of technology. If any of you are interested or if you just want to like know about it, you should definitely check it out. But, um, yeah, it's really cool and I use it a lot because it makes products really lightweight and it's very cheap compared to other plastics that companies use, so it's very efficient for my purpose and in general other pieces of technology. Um, I used an arduino uno and a kit that came along with that kids are definitely gonna Archi.

Amber Ivey:

What did you just say to us? What is that? What does that?

Archi Marrapu:

mean yeah, so an Arduino Uno is a piece of electronic equipment and it basically acts as a computer. So it has a lot of features. You can connect it from wires to motors, you can connect it to lights, you can connect it to buzzers, you can connect it to so many different sensors and try experimenting with the circuitry system. So the kit that I used is called the Arduino Uno kit and it comes with a couple lights, it comes with a fan and it allows you to experiment and play around with that. So that's the kit that I recommend if you want to start out.

Amber Ivey:

And I could just buy that online. Right? I can literally go online and get that to start playing around with circuits, electricity and things like that.

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. It's available online, so I think everyone should go check that out. And in terms of mobile application and app development, I use a platform called Flutter. It's really good for app templates and it just makes it so much easier for the person using your app. I'm going to use a term called user interface and let me describe that. So that's basically what the person using your product utilizes. So, like Project Pill Tracker, the user interface would be the mobile application, because that's what they go in and check, because that's what they go in and check and that's what they go in and log into. But the user also works with the bottle, so that would probably be another thing that they work with. The term user interface is usually I've heard it used in terms of apps because it's the screen that the person sees and then you have your back end, which is your coding, so you code it to make it do something on the user interface. So that's just fun fact of the day.

Amber Ivey:

What coding language did you use when you were doing your coding?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah, so I coded it in Android studios, which uses Java. Oh, okay, great.

Amber Ivey:

One of the things we are doing on our Instagram is the ABCs of AI, where we talk about some of the coding languages that are involved with AI. So super excited that you brought some of the coding here today, yeah. So I want to ask you another question. Like this program is called AI for Kids, I want to ask you about AI and kids. Right, so we use AI in everyday life. How could AI help us in school or at home? If I'm a young kid listening to this with my parents right now on the drive home, what can it help me do? How can it improve my life?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah. So if you're in the car right now driving home, pull up Google Maps navigation that uses artificial intelligence. Pull up Siri or whatever Alexa or some assistant like that those all use artificial intelligence or some assistant like that those all use artificial intelligence. Basically, what I want to say is our world is turning so technological that it's not something that AI is going to be working in the next few years. It's already something that's there now. It's just most people don't know about it.

Archi Marrapu:

If you look in Google Maps or if you look at smart homes a lot of houses now they're integrated with Alexa or or Google Home, and Google Home can turn on your lights, it can shut off your blinds, it can play music and match the lights to the mood of the music or the beats of the music. All of this uses advanced technology that people don't stop and think about, because it's so fascinating that if you just stop and think, you can learn so much about what's underlying for it. So, yeah, I think AI can definitely help on a daily basis, and it already is helping on a daily basis. It's just the goal for us now is to stop whatever you're doing and think about what is the technology you're using behind that.

Amber Ivey:

Oh yeah, even for folks who are watching it on YouTube, there may have been an AI that actually led you here, based on the types of videos you watch. So that's another place that it can definitely show up. I used to talk about AI with adults and then I realized I'm like I need to go earlier, because adults were a little bit afraid, like it's like this new thing and we're like what is going on? Why are you talking about this? So I'm like let me start with kids, who are more adventurous, who are more ready to learn, and that's why AI for Kids is really being built, and I'm hoping that's a platform that parents can also learn from. But I wanna really focus on the kid piece. Do you think kids can learn about AI and, if so, what is the first thing they should do to start the path? Because you've been on it and you're like way farther than most folks, even adults, really. So can kids learn ai and how can they do it?

Archi Marrapu:

yeah.

Archi Marrapu:

So I think the first step is to be curious. And I say that because I think curiosity and that sort of like wondering is what led me to explore about ai. And I first heard about ai when I was in sixth grade and by that time I already knew how to code. I started coding in fifth grade. Which is probably the first step that I would recommend for anyone looking to explore about AI it's to learn to code. I started to learn coding in Java and then I switched to Python afterward and I became certified in Python and now it's my favorite language. I use other languages, but Python remains my favorite till today.

Archi Marrapu:

But yeah, I think that's the first step. And I learned Python in sixth grade and at the same time I heard about AI. So I heard about it in some article that I was reading and, again, curiosity, it made me read more. It made me click on the link and actually read through it and that led me to write my sixth grade final writing assignment about AI for space exploration. So that was kind of my turning point about AI and that project taught me a lot about it. So I think it was all fueled by curiosity and just that sense of wondering to find out what is happening and just being addicted to gaining knowledge. That's kind of what pushes you forward. So be curious and learn how to code. That's my first two like steps that I would say.

Amber Ivey:

I love that you said curiosity, because I think in my whole entire life and I'm way older than you are.

Amber Ivey:

That's what has led me to where I am Like it was literally something that I'm like what is that? Let me go dig in deeper and spending that time. So thank you for mentioning that and also mentioning how young you were when you started to code, so people can know we're listening to this. They're not too young or to start. They can start now, even when they're in middle school and different grades. So I really appreciate you for talking about that. One thing I want to say is you're truly an inspiration. Right as I'm listening and learning more about your story, I'm fully inspired. Who is your inspiration? So who's giving you ideas and encouraging you to work on these cool projects? Is there someone in the tech space or a technology of sorts that you admire, or someone who's leading a tech of sorts that you admire?

Archi Marrapu:

Recently I attended a seminar by Dr Monica Bertagnoli. She's the director of NIH and she talked a lot about AI and how it's being immersed in NIH for new health care policies and stuff like that. And I thought that was really cool, because usually when people think of NIH it's like oh, it's medicine, it's health care, it's doctors. But she talked a lot about how they want to bring up more AI in the policies and how they want to get it spread to every aspect of our nation. Oh yeah, I think she's one of my greatest inspirations. I was so fortunate to meet her. I actually got a picture with her.

Amber Ivey:

I was going to say did you meet her? Okay, great.

Archi Marrapu:

I did, I did. I was going to say did you meet her? Okay, great, I did, I did. I was so lucky that day.

Amber Ivey:

That is so awesome, like your future is definitely bright and I know folks who are listening to this are looking up to you for advice. So what is some advice you would tell a kid who wants to start making their own inventions or learn about AI? Like, be curious, of course, and code, but what else do they need to be doing?

Archi Marrapu:

Yeah. So I think one thing is to always be confident in yourself. Yes, because no matter what, you're always gonna have people discouraging you. No matter how many resources you have and how many opportunities you have, you're always gonna have those people who don't think you can make it. So I think when you have no one else to motivate you, or when you have no one else empower you, you are your best friend, you are your biggest supporter. Oh yeah, and you need to have that confidence in yourself that, no matter how many times you need to learn something, no matter how many years or days or weeks you're struggling with something, you will make it through. You will get past that challenge and you will succeed in the end if you are really passionate about it. So I think, being confident in yourself, I think that's the most important thing in the world.

Amber Ivey:

I work with kids and volunteer with kids a lot, and what I've seen and even my friends who've gotten older, what I've seen is that confidence is broken early and then you struggle your whole life trying to build up confidence and trying to capture that again, and I'm so happy. Your message is truly like be confident in yourself. You're gonna fail, like even all of us here. You and I have felt so many times what's the difference? We get back up and keep failing and and keep trying things, because that's the only way to get here. Like the thing that's driving this technology electricity was based on a thousand failures when they were trying to figure out how to make light. So failure is a part of life and I just wish and maybe they do now, but schools when I was younger they didn't teach you about failure and then the confidence that comes along with that to get up. So I'm so happy you mentioned confidence. Is there anything else you want to tell the young listeners?

Archi Marrapu:

There's always opportunities. I know everyone comes from a different background, but there's always opportunities. Obviously, like the internet, is available to everyone, so that might be a first step if you are looking for opportunities. Coding is getting easier and easier to learn, not because the subject is easy, but it's because there's so many YouTube tutorials and there's so many games almost that you could learn coding from. And I think coding should be a skill that everyone has, because it's not just its own industry. Now it's something that's seeping into every industry and, in all likelihood, we're all going to need some sort of coding skill in order to have careers in the STEM field when we're older.

Archi Marrapu:

So, yeah, and I actually have a non-profit, so if anyone needs any opportunities, be sure to follow. It's called STEMify Girls. We basically empower young students to pursue STEM and we have a lot of focus on technology and it's integrated into the other aspects of STEM as well. But we do a lot of events throughout the country, mostly in the DC, maryland and Virginia area, but we are spread out in various chapters in the DC, maryland and Virginia area, but we are spread out in various chapters. Our website is stemifygirlsorg and our email is stemifygirls at gmailcom or you can contact me directly at founderstemifygirls at gmailcom for any opportunities. Yeah, please definitely reach out. There's always people willing to help. I know that sometimes it takes a lot to find those people.

Amber Ivey:

Thank you for also being so willing to share, and we'll also put in the show notes for parents, for kids who may not know where they are. They're located at the bottom of the podcast, but we'll have all the links there and all the information there in case you missed it. All right, I want to do a quick, fun wrap up and make it a little bit more light. I know we've been talking heavily about tech, which I love and also feel like is light as well, but I want to get even more fun.

Archi Marrapu:

If you could build a robot to help you with one chore or one thing, either homework or something else what would that robot do? If it was a chore, it would probably be cooking. Just because I right now I'm I'm close to college and I have very minimal cooking skills, I would burn water. That's how bad I am. So I just tell myself that I need can't be good at everything.

Amber Ivey:

No, I mean you're building a pill tracker. You got a nonprofit. You just were at Congress like you can't do everything.

Archi Marrapu:

But I know cooking is so I'm here for your robot that cooks for you. Cooking is needed to live and you need to live to do projects. So I would have a robot that can cook, because it's like on-demand dishes.

Amber Ivey:

I love that I am with you. I am in the same camp. I don't like cooking, I'd rather spend my time doing something else. I love to eat, but the process I'm like, yeah, a robot can do that for me. As soon as figure one. Yeah, boston Dynamics, whoever decides to sell that first in-home Tesla, whoever decided to sell the first in-home robot, I'm getting it and it will be perfect yeah, at college, if I struggle too much, I will be creating one.

Amber Ivey:

So there you go. That's what I'm talking about. And then I wanted to ask you what is your favorite fun fact about technology, what is something you could share with?

Archi Marrapu:

us. So again, at Semify Girls, we do emphasize a little bit more about girls, so I know a lot of statistics offhand. So in the next 10 years, we're going to be needing 1 million more personnel and STEM professionals than we have the potential to generate. So people are assuming that women are going to take up that role. So we need 1 million women at the very least every year to engage more in STEM. So that's where we're trying to fill that gap right now.

Amber Ivey:

So yeah, that's a good stat and thank you for sharing that with us, and I think that's like the perfect way to end it. Thank you so much for talking with me today and just thank you for sharing your exciting projects, your ideas. It's just amazing to see how AI can help us in so many ways, and we're all looking forward to seeing what you invent next. I will make sure to drop information about Archi and all that she's working on in the show notes. Archi. Any final words before we sign off?

Archi Marrapu:

Just stay curious, confident and passionate about what you're doing, and thank you so much for having me on the podcast.

Amber Ivey:

No problem. Thanks, Archi, thanks everyone. See you all soon. Thank you for joining us as we explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. Don't keep this adventure to yourself. Download it, share it with your friends and let everyone else in on the fun. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube. See you next time on AI for Kids.

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