My Experiences At Elevate

Throughout this amazing conference I met so many interesting people and I watched some really inspiring sessions. I want to share some of the things these amazing people taught me.

I learned about something called “moonshots” that people had envisioned and I watched as their vision became reality. These moonshots were inspiring as a young inventor and I hope that I can create my vision and see it to its reality no matter the path. Whether its AI, Virtual Reality, Advanced Transportation or any other technology, the bottom line is that I want to make impactful change on this world. It will be then that I will know that I have reached my destination of my moonshot.

These talks and conversations have made me more resilient and has inspired me to continue to innovate, try and fail and it has made me confident that I can make a positive change in this world.

Unfortunately I was unable to meet Brendan, his speech was inspiring and what he had shown was an example of a moonshot success. At Deep Genomics, they have discovered their first therapeutic candidate. DG12P1 is the AI that targeted Wilson disease and it developed a cure that targets the root cause of the disease. This was mind blowing to see the success of an idea that caused Deep Genomics to be born in 2014. This is game changing to see a completed solution and drug that is proven to work done by an AI machine. This is so cool because if this was done once it can be done again, and most likely better because the machine and the company have learned from their mistakes and they will be able to improve and do it faster than previously done. This taught me that you must learn from your mistakes because going forward they can only improve you as with any other failed attempts. It is also interesting to see how the technology has grown since the word ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was invented by John McCarthy in 1956. When it was first named it was considered futuristic technology that people hoped would have machines learn like humans. Now, artificial intelligence has been able to actually do it in this example of targeting disease and curing them.

I met Richard standing by the new surface hub 2. He was there showing off the new technology with the help of TD. I went up to him asking about the giant tablet that I later found out was called the surface Hub 2. I asked about the computing power and how it works and he told me about the hub in the back (Hint the name). The hub in the back is removable and it holds the computer that runs the software. If you were to remove the hub you can use it as a touch screen extension to your PC or laptop. It comes with a pen that is very ergonomic and is designed for writing a lot of notes or drawing designs. The pen is large and is similar in design to a workshop pencil meant for marking wood. I also learned that you can set up a system so when a person is finished working on possibly sensitive information the computer can wipe itself clean from browsing history and all drawings and notes (once you have saved it to your secured Microsoft account).

Once we began to drift away from the subject of the interesting Surface hub 2, we began to talk a bit deeper about ourselves and I told him some things I was working on and how I was thinking about creating something to get me upfront cash to fund other projects. He responded by saying to me “Don’t worry about money”. He explained that if you have a good world changing idea, you will find the money to get it done. If you have a good idea someone out there will benefit from your idea and they will need your help to create a positive change in there life.

Richard told me about his ideas as a kid and how he thought money was a barrier that must be faced for a successful product and how he was shown that this is actually not the case. He taught me a lot about being successful and how to take my inventions and ideas and put them into reality. I benefited a lot from our conversation and I hope that I can continue to learn from him as I get to know him better. The benefit of this conference is that I have now networked and can reach out to Richard any time for advice or potentially to do business together.

I saw Ed Clark present at the AI Talks at the MaRs center. He had an interesting take on how we must advance in AI and any technology for that matter. He believes that we must grow the knowledge industry to get more funds and money to these researchers and world changers. I believe this is a good idea because it can not only help advance this technology, but also help keep the jobs in Canada and not send jobs offshore so we can control how the technology is being used and use it responsibly. This also helps to ignite our own country’s economics by creating business through these investments and employing Canadians.

Elevate is a great conference that allows people to share ideas and network. I learned so much at this conference and I met a lot of people. I built skills and learned to network. This conference was very beneficial from listening to the talks or talking to some who you just walked up to and introduce yourself. If you were unable to come to Elevate and unable to learn, not to worry because here are my key takeaways from this conference.

To end off, just take some risks! Put yourself out there and expand your network. People often think we (as teenagers) are too young to really do these things to advance our thinking and ideas. I have been doing this since I was six years old. I would write down my inventions on small pieces of paper and store them in a plastic safe. I would talk and pitch my ideas to anyone who would listen to me. All I can say is that it has improved my chances of really making my ideas become a reality… my moonshot! So get out there and take your risk.

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