From classroom to competition

There’s a version of the future in which you tell your phone you’re craving pizza, but want something healthier, and within minutes, a customized recipe and grocery order are on the way to your door.

For three Hillrise Elementary School fifth graders, that future isn’t science fiction. It’s an idea they turned into an award-winning project.

Mason Williams, Leo Zheng and Elijah Galindez, all part of the gifted program at Hillrise, spent the school year exploring artificial intelligence under the direction of teacher Trevor Burnsed. That work culminated in their entry into the Presidential AI Challenge.

“I had decided this year to try to have AI be a theme of a lot of different things that we would study,” Burnsed said. “It seems to me that whether we like it or not, it's going to play an increasing role in their lives going forward.

“It’s something I want them to understand — what it is and what it’s not. There’s a lot of fantasy out there … so we wanted to give them an understanding of what AI really is and how it really functions.”

That focus lined up perfectly when Burnsed came across a national competition centered on artificial intelligence.

“I was looking for projects and contests that might be related to that, and it just so happened that right at the beginning of the year, the White House announced the presidential AI contest,” he said. “The simplest version … was to propose an idea for an app in detail on how it would function. Some of the middle and high school kids were actually coding or developing their own apps.”

Williams, Zheng and Galindez teamed up to develop an app concept called “Snack Alternatives.” The idea: a user inputs a craving for a less healthy food, and the app generates a healthier option — complete with a recipe and a grocery list that could be sent directly to a local store for delivery.

The class spent the fall developing ideas before submitting projects in January. During spring break, the trio learned they had been selected as New Mexico state champions.

They advanced to a regional competition, where they delivered a five-minute live online presentation to a panel of college professors. While they didn’t move on beyond the state level, the experience pushed them in new ways.

“We were definitely scared,” Williams said. “My idea was that the judges were going to be scary, but it was fun when we actually did the presentation. I was still really nervous, but it was fun.”

The tight time limit added to the pressure. There was an actual clock counting down the five minutes.

“We had specific roles in the presentation,” Williams said. “Elijah did the introduction and the conclusion, and then I gave an overall outline … and Leo gave a real-world example of every step.”

The idea itself started with Williams, who envisioned a system similar to meal kits — one that could suggest recipes based on available ingredients. As the group’s understanding of AI grew, so did the sophistication of their concept.

“At the beginning we were still in the fantasy realm of AI,” Zheng said. “But as we went through the year and learned how it functions … the idea became more grounded. Like, we could actually make this. AI is like a generator. It grabs information from other websites … and puts it all into a summary to give the results for your question.”

That shift from imagination to practical understanding was exactly the goal.

Rather than science fiction scenarios, students learned how AI is already being used: as a tool that organizes vast amounts of information into usable ideas.

For Williams, Zheng and Galindez, that lesson came with a state title, and a glimpse of the role they might play in a rapidly changing world.

“We’re just very proud of them,” Burnsed said. “AI is going to be a huge part of the world going forward. I think it’s something that they need to consider — their role in it, and how it’s going to affect their lives.”