Dana Foundation to Fund Neuroscience and AI Education Pilot in NYC High School

The NSF AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence (ARNI) at Columbia Engineering has received a grant from the Dana Foundation to develop an innovative high school curriculum exploring the intersection of neuroscience and AI. The program will help high school juniors and seniors understand how brains and AI systems learn, where they differ, and the ethical questions raised by the use of these technologies. ARNI is the only NSF National AI Institute dedicated to integrating neuroscience, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence.

The 18-month pilot will produce an open-source curriculum and a teacher community platform. The modular curriculum will support teachers in helping students understand how brains and AI systems learn, where they diverge, and the ethical questions that AI continues to raise. The project will be developed in partnership with Neuromatch and the Columbia Teachers College Digital Futures Institute (DFI).

ARNI Managing Director Spyridon Mylonas is leading project coordination partnerships, teacher recruitment, and implementation, working closely with Neuromatch on curriculum development, and with DFI on program evaluation. In its pilot launch, 15 New York City high school teachers will implement the curriculum after a summer training workshop at Columbia in 2027. Applications from teachers at Title I and historically underserved schools will receive priority. Although the pilot will begin with New York City teachers, the curriculum will be released as open educational resources, enabling educators nationally to adapt and implement the materials.

The project extends ARNI's education efforts into secondary school classrooms. ARNI also reaches children and families through exhibits at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) and offers a graduate-level NeuroAI course globally, which has reached hundreds of learners through the Neuromatch summer school global learning platform.

The Dana Foundation explores the connections between neuroscience and society’s challenges and opportunities, working to maximize the potential of the field to do good. As of 2022, the Foundation dedicated its focus to Neuroscience & Society. This mission embodies Dana’s spirit of open inquiry, collaborative research, and multidisciplinary thinking in service of the well-being of all people.

The NSF AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence (ARNI) connects a decade of progress in AI to the revolution in our understanding of the brain. ARNI meets the urgent need for new paradigms of interdisciplinary research between neuroscience and AI. ARNI pursues both theoretical and use-inspired work that will accelerate progress in both fields, and broaden their transformative impact on society in the next decade.