The three week-long 2023 Lakota AI Code Camp began last week. Campers were welcomed to the campus of Black Hills State University, their home away from home. The Lakota AI Code Camp is a three-week long summer program for high school students where they gain hands-on experience developing personalized mobile apps using industry standard software engineering practices, computer science, deep learning, and extended reality incorporating Indigenous knowledge and methods. The camp aims to inspire students to pursue pathways into higher education and careers in advanced technology fields.
Across the way, thirteen other students successfully completed a four-year Lakȟóta language fluency program on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A graduation celebration was held for the thirteen who completed the course earlier this month in Rapid City. The language program is at Maȟpíya Lúta – Red Cloud Indian School. The goal is to increase the number of proficient Lakȟóta speakers. Participants commit to an hour a day, five nights a week, over four years. Students move through the levels as proficiency increases, according to the release. Students include teachers, parents and community members. The language program will start again in the fall.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
