Team ICT 2014
“My dream is to work in artificial intelligence and design truly intelligent machines, but the field of computer science is quickly changing. Who knows what new fascinating field could exist in the future?” says Jasper Chapman-Black from Canada. Other members of the ICT team come from Argentina, Brazil, Finland, Nigeria, and Singapore.
Here are the members of the Information and Communication Technology theme group of the International Millennium Youth Camp 2014.
Francisco Ruy Trujillo, Argentina
“I hope to meet fantastic people and make new friends, get to know Finland and Finnish professionals, and of course have a great time,” says 16-year-old Francisco Ruy Trujillo from Argentina.
Currently a high-school senior, Francisco enjoys playing the guitar and singing, photography and graphic web design. He likes to tinker with stuff to find out how it works and loves creating and improving things. “Besides from science, I’ve always liked to improve or create stuff, accordingly I’m very interested in technology too.”
Participation in Science Olympiads has inspired and engaged him in science, technology and mathematics. “I do have to say, that participating in Science and Math Olympiads and other science-related events, made me love science, meet awesome people and learn a lot”.
Although he loves reasoning and learning new things through challenging situations, music and photography are his greatest passions at the moment. In the future he would like to pursue studies at university and perhaps a career abroad. His dream is to make worthwhile contributions to society and to enjoy life.
Carolina Lima Guimarães, Brazil
“I am passionate about understanding everything that surrounds me,” says Carolina Lima Guimarães from Brazil.
She studies in a technical school with specialized classes in for example electronics and electrotechnology. Carolina, who loves to travel and meet interesting people, is a frequent participant in national science and technology events for young people. In her opinion these competitions and events are excellent for meeting people with similar interests.
“I have science as one of my hobbies: I read Physics books like most people read novels, I build robots like small children play with their toys and I admire scientists like most teenagers admire movie stars.”
Her family has been very supportive of her science enthusiasm. She applied to the International Millennium Youth Camp because she wanted to meet people who, like her, are interested in understanding and changing the world.
“I wanted to learn more, in the best way of learning: while having fun! I’ve always loved changing people’s lives. I wanna create a future in which people will have better and easier lives.”
At the Millennium Youth Camp she expects to look deeper into the world of ICT, do her best on the team project and to have a fun week.
Petteri Timonen, Finland
“One of the reasons for applying was being able to make new friends with shared areas of interest,” says 16-year-old Petteri Timonen from Finland.
Petteri attends boarding school at Päivölä School of Mathematics. The school’s internship program enables him to work as a part-time software developer in addition to his studies. “My interest in information technology and programming has arisen from the joy of creating new things no-one has done before”.
“I have recently gotten into the field of competitive programming and in April I took part in my first international competition, the Baltic Olympiad in Informatics in Lithuania, where I earned a silver medal.”
He heard about the Millennium Youth camp from previous campers and is excited about the possibility to meet and interact with other teenagers who share the same interests.
“I hope to get in touch with people that have the same passion for science and technology.”
In the future he hopes to establish a career in computer science. “Whether I’ll be studying in a Finnish or foreign university is to be seen, but I am sure being motivated and having established international connections will prove useful either way.”
Fiyinfoluwa Soyoye, Nigeria
“I like to read and see what’s new out there in the world of technology and then think up ways of how I can make it even better,” says 17-year-old Fiyinfoluwa Soyoye from Nigeria.
At the moment she studies mechatronics engineering at Bells University of Technology in Ota, Nigeria and is especially enthusiastic about robotics.
“I love technology, there are so many possibilities. You just never get bored, you never run out of ideas. I run a robotics program for primary school kids at home and it’s incredible when you see an eight year old go from not knowing how to shut down a computer to writing perfectly logical code in the space of a month. It gives me the feeling that if I can just get the right opportunities, I can educate myself and teach the world.”
Her dream is to work in a field associated with robotics and she is passionate about getting better at the things she enjoys. In the future she wants to start a technology consulting firm in Africa and to take steps towards engaging African kids in science.
“I want as many kids and teens out there to have even bigger and better opportunities. I know what I want to do in the future and now is the best time to set up all my plans and start working at them.”
She expects to learn a lot at the Millennium Youth Camp, which will be her first experience working in an international team. “I’m going to be making a lot of friends too and practicing as many languages as I can. It won’t be all work though; I hope I get to see a lot of Finland and the Finnish culture as well.”
Girish Kumar, Singapore
“The opportunity of meeting science talents from all over the world excites me the most. At the same time, I hope to boost my knowledge in AI research,” says Girish Kumar from Singapore.
In his free time he enjoys playing soccer but his main interests at the moment are computer science and artificial intelligence. He sees possibilities in developing novel and more efficient information retrieval systems.
“I am passionate about making the process of digesting information much easier by generating concept maps from text. I am also hoping to build a startup around the technology I am developing.”
“Science has the power to impact people’s lives in unimaginable ways. We can witness this every day in our lives. And this ability that science could provide greatly excited me and this is what keeps me motivated to learn more and more.”
He’s looking forward to meeting young science talents from around the world. He’s also keen to encounter and understand aspects of the Finnish culture and to explore the local start-up scene.
Jasper Chapman-Black, Canada
“I’m really interested in cryptography and machine learning. Both of these topics have a strong mathematical basis, but are also very applicable,” says Jasper Chapman-Black from Canada.
16-year-old Jasper likes skiing, reading and choir singing. He is especially into programming and computer science, interests originally sparked by the flights of imagination in science fiction books.
“I have always seen science as a way of propelling humanity into such a future, and computer science allows us to harness the intelligence of computers to achieve things that humans alone cannot.”
Currently he’s intrigued by cryptography and machine learning as well as artificial intelligence.
“Both these topics have a strong mathematical basis, but are also very applicable: artificial intelligence and machine learning help us learn more from data, and cryptography helps us design secure systems in a world where information security is becoming more and more important. I’m also really interested in computational complexity theory and how to design “friendly” artificial intelligence.”
His dream is to design intelligent machines and he sees opportunities in the constant progress and change in the field of computer science.
He’s looking forward to meeting his fellow campers as he’s already had interesting discussions with them online. Jasper also hopes to maintain contact with the friends he will make and to form future collaborations.
“Lots of great ideas come from collaboration and networking, and I think that the Millennium Youth Camp will foster that collaboration.”
Maija Pollari is a science journalist whose background is in molecular biology research. She enjoys flamenco dancing, reading, and roleplaying adventures.