A new charter school focused on teaching data science and artificial intelligence is set to open its doors this fall in Kalihi on Oʻahu.
Kūlia Academy will be in a space formerly occupied by St. John the Baptist School.
Executive Director Andy Gokce and Board Member Karen Awana spoke to The Conversation about working on the school for the last eight years.
"We came up with the idea that data science and AI will be the rising careers of the future. And every single career no matter what, psychology, law, whatever, you name it, they will require AI in the future. So we said we need to teach data science and AI," Gokce said.
"We have a six-year curriculum from MIT, Stanford, UCLA, and some other private initiatives on data science and AI," he said. "We already hired our data science and AI teacher in the beginning of January, and he's been working on updating our curriculum."
The window for student applications is narrowing. A lottery for 100 sixth-grade slots will take place on April 20.
School officials said more than a hundred families have already applied, thus the lottery.
They plan to add a grade level each year until they have about 700 students in grades six through 12.
This story aired on The Conversation on April 16, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
