MCAA Joins White House's AI In Education Pledge

Words: Jeff Buczkiewicz

Last month, I had the opportunity to be invited to the White House for a task force meeting on AI in Education. How does the MCAA get invited to this event? The MCAA was invited to participate and be a part of this task force earlier this year. For the past two and a half years, the MCAA has been working internally to produce a Wall Evaluator AI program. Why a Wall Evaluator and what is it?

We have to go back a few years. The MCAA has been working for several years on our Youth Education and Outreach Effort. We have been working closely with Ryan Shaver from North Carolina on what he has been doing and learning, and trying to see what we can pull and share with other parts of the country and how we can expand his successful initiative to other parts of the country. Part of that process has included getting into the schools, having them work with us to define a career-ready individual, and how we get industry and the school system to work together to define them the same way. We did some very exciting and new things with the masonry curriculum used in nearly every state. Our curriculum provider, NCCER, agreed to work with us to rewrite the Masonry program and to include their core curriculum in the regular program. This was a huge change as the experience has seen students falling off dramatically after the core program. In addition to changing the curriculum, we wanted to place less emphasis on the paper test and more emphasis on the hands-on testing. In other words, the student’s ability with the trowel. After all, that is what the industry would consider a career-ready individual.

Our friends at the NC Department of Education brought us the challenge of developing a way to be able to show the progression of a student from the beginning of the semester to the end, and it must take the subjectivity out of the grading of the hands-on work. This stirred the development of the Wall Evaluator software. We are nearly done with a program that utilizes a LiDAR scanner to scan a student’s wall and then score it based on the same criteria the industry uses to judge walls in our masonry competitions. This program can be stored in a database, which can then track progression. The scanner takes all subjectivity out of grading as it will consistently score a wall the exact same no matter how many times you scan it. Fast forward to earlier this year when the task force was formed.

When we were presented with the opportunity to serve on the AI for education task force, we had a project in the works that would transform the grading structure for CTE programs across the country. We would share our software with the education system and have a new way to assess students and bridge the career-ready “gap” that has existed. We signed onto the Presidential Task Force. Fast forward to Labor Day, September 1st (the week before the MCAA mid-year meeting). Our White House liaison sent a note to the task force members inviting them to DC to participate in the first in-person Task Group on Thursday, September 4. Timing was a little off as my plan was to head to MI on Friday am for our Mid-Year Meeting. After speaking with Steve Borg, I decided to make it to DC on that Thursday for the meeting.

Thursday morning came pretty quickly. I was on the first flight out of Chicago to DC. I met at the Vogel Group and spent what was left of the morning with our lobbyist, Steve Borg. Steve took me to the White House and dropped me there in time for the meeting. It was an interesting double security clearance and double metal detectors to make my way up the drive to the White House. We have all seen the drive many times when we see foreign leaders being dropped off on that drive and entering the White House. Instead of driving, our group was walking up the drive and entered the doors.

Formal Marine personnel were all around the White House; there was a military small orchestra playing as we entered. We were directed up a set of stairs, which took us to the hall for the State Dinner room and the East room. I may have ventured off to grab a picture in the State Dinner room. I also took photos of some of the portraits of Past Presidents as well as the current President. Our meeting was in the East Room. I met a lot of folks along the walk and in the White House as well. I was clearly the odd attendee, not by looks, but by demographics, who I was with and what we were doing. Most groups were either tech firms or education providers (print book, online resources, etc.). I did not meet anyone else from the construction industry, and really, the task members did not stray far from Tech and Education firms. Most were pretty impressed with what we were doing and what we were there for. I traded a lot of business cards with folks and made some nice contacts.

When the meeting was ready to begin, the front table began to be ushered in, most were from industry, including OpenAI CEO, Google CEO, Intel CEO, and Nvidia CEO. In addition, the Secretaries of Education, Labor, and Agriculture were all present, as well as their staff. Then we were all asked to stand, and they introduced the Chair of the Task Group, Melania Trump. Our country's First Lady was there to chair the meeting. We heard from most folks at the front table. They all gave updates on where they were in the process and discussed opportunities for people on the task force, grant-wise and otherwise. The meeting lasted about an hour and a half, and then we broke and left the room. We were escorted out of the White House and back down the same drive we entered. The journey back to Chicago was a lot longer than expected, as there were several delays and a changed air carrier in order for me to get home Thursday night, but I made it. I look forward to serving on the task force and seeing AI continue to develop for our country and be a part of the process to bring AI to the education system and future generations of workers. Look for more updates here in Masonry Magazine as we work through the process.

MCAA Joins White House's AI In Education Pledge

About: Industry News

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