Black Student Fund Offers Math for Machine Learning Course
News related to:Black Student Fund · 2 min read
On the anniversary of Benjamin Banneker's death, the Black Student Fund (BSF) is recommitting to its mission of promoting math literacy among local teens. Banneker, a self-taught mathematician and astronomer who died on October 9, 1806, born free in Maryland in 1731, became one of the first prominent Black American scientists. In 1791, he assisted surveyor Andrew Ellicott in laying out the boundaries of the new federal territory that became Washington, D.C. From 1792 to 1797, he published almanacs based on his own astronomical calculations.
BSF, based in Washington, D.C., has served more than 5,000 students across roughly 90 schools in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. The nonprofit is currently offering a four-week course called "Math for Machine Learning" during the summer of 2027. The course is designed for high school students and aims to teach the mathematics behind the technology reshaping their world. The curriculum is structured as follows:
- Week 1: Linear Algebra. Vectors and matrices, and how computers represent images, text, and data as lists of numbers. - Week 2: Calculus. Derivatives and gradients, and how a model "learns" by gradually adjusting itself to reduce error. - Week 3: Probability and Statistics. Averages, variation, and uncertainty, and how models make predictions from imperfect data. - Week 4: Putting It Together. Students combine these ideas to see how a simple model, such as a line of best fit or a basic neural network, learns from examples.
The class builds on BSF's broader math offerings. This summer, the Conchita Poole Math Circle ran a free, six-week remote Math Summer Boost Program for middle schoolers from 19 regional schools, while younger students used the prototype Tantalus BSF Math Arcade, a game-based platform created by BSF's STEM Director. BSF also supports SAT math prep and has entered student teams in the MathCounts National Student Video Competition.
Leroy Nesbitt, the Executive Director of BSF, emphasized the importance of math literacy in the era of artificial intelligence. The class is inspired by Banneker's legacy of rigorous, self-driven math and aims to instill the same values in today's students.
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