AI for Kids

How a Former Rocket Scientist Inspires Kids to Explore Computers

• Terysa Ridgeway • Season 2 • Episode 2

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How does one go from a small town in Louisiana to a leading role at Google, with a detour through rocket science? In our latest episode, we welcome Terysa Ridgeway, who shares her unique journey and offers a fresh perspective on artificial intelligence. Terysa's story is a testament to the power of nurturing creativity alongside technical skills, as she recounts her childhood passion for math and science, guided by an encouraging high school counselor. She breaks down AI in a way that's easy for kids to grasp, describing it as a "fake brain" that needs human training, and uses familiar examples like virtual assistants and personalized content to demonstrate how AI is already woven into the fabric of everyday life.

Get ready for a thrilling ride through tech trivia! Terysa joins us as we spotlight some of the most fascinating moments in technology history. Terysa also shares her adventures as a bestselling children's author of the "Terysa Solves It" series, where she combines her love for storytelling with STEM education, aiming to ignite curiosity and creativity in young readers.

Aspiring young technologists are in for a treat as we explore how to inspire the next generation through AI storytelling and coding education.

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Amber Ivey:

Welcome to the AI for Kids podcast, where playtime, learning and creating collide bit by bit. Ever wonder how your phone recognizes your face. How does a game learn to get harder as you get better? This is AI. This podcast is designed for kids like you and your human parents, making the complex world of AI easy to understand and, most importantly, fun. So are you ready to unlock the mysteries of artificial intelligence? Subscribe and join us on AI for Kids. Hi everyone, Welcome back to the AI for Kids podcast. Today we have a really exciting guest. Please welcome Terysa Ridgway, a computer science professional, former rocket scientist I don't know if I can say I've ever met a rocket scientist and definitely have an interview, one for the podcast and currently, and currently a technical program manager at Google yes, Google, Terysa, can you tell us a little more about yourself and your journey?

Terysa Ridgeway:

Sure, I can absolutely start. So I come from a very humble background. In Southwest Louisiana, the name of my city is Sunset and most people, 10 miles any direction, have never heard of it. So a town of maybe 2,500 people, a child of two educators and the youngest of three. I've used that experience to somehow find my way in tech. I've always been very inquisitive, always lots of questions, initially thinking that I would go into education somehow. But I found my way back into education through my children's book series.

Amber Ivey:

I absolutely love that. And speaking of education, what was your favorite subject when you were a kid? Did you always know you wanted to work in technology and science? What was your favorite?

Terysa Ridgeway:

subject. When you were a kid, did you always know you wanted to work in technology and science? I did not always want to work in technology and science. However. My best subjects in school were math and science, but I didn't put the two together until my high school counselor helped to guide me in the right direction.

Amber Ivey:

It's always important to have those adults to help identify those pieces. For sure Is there anything else that you were interested in when you were growing up? I?

Terysa Ridgeway:

think I was just a child of a super wild imagination, kind of lollygag through life, not necessarily tying to one thing, just like I've always been drawn to really creative things, things where I could kind of just let my mind wander a little bit, but not necessarily like oh, I want to go into tech. Honestly, when I was a kid I didn't even know what tech was, so definitely wasn't like in the cards for me, but definitely found my way here.

Amber Ivey:

What is a superpower that you've always wanted to have? What would it be and why?

Terysa Ridgeway:

always wanted to have. What would it be and why? I would say the superpower I would always wanted to have, even like as an adult. I would say it's like x-ray vision the power to see through things and understand how they work. I think it's still a little bit of that curiosity, just wanting to see how things work, whether it's like the human body or a robot or anything like that.

Amber Ivey:

I absolutely love that, and one of the things that, of course, we focus on here is AI, and I often like to hear how people explain it to a kid in a way that a kid would understand. Can you explain what artificial intelligence is in a way that a kid would understand?

Terysa Ridgeway:

Because I have children of my own. I often have these conversations pretty often, so I'll do my best. I would explain AI to a young child in a way where it's like, if you think about the human body and how your brain works, if you think about the term artificial, which IE means fake, which IE means fake, so it's like I think of a fake brain is how I would explain it to a kid. It's like, okay, you have this thing as I explain what a computer does, a computer is not this smart machine. Engineers make computers smart. So the same thing with any type of AI. You're putting a fake brain into something and making it smart.

Amber Ivey:

I love that example and it makes it really simple to understand. And also your point of computers just don't become these smart things. There are humans behind them that are helping them get there, which is also the same thing that happens with AI. They're being trained originally by humans and, of course, they can kind of learn things on their own just by the way they're built. With that being said, in your definition, what are some of the everyday examples of AI that kids might use or see?

Terysa Ridgeway:

Yeah, I would say some of the examples would be like one of my favorite are like assistant. You think about Alexa or Siri or even a Google assistant. Those are everyday examples where you say hey to whatever your assistant is and you ask a question and they use their artificial intelligence brain to give you this information or be able to pull that together. But I would also say something very simple that I feel that most kids would identify with are things like your YouTube feed. Most kids love YouTube and if you like a certain type of video, if you're into gaming and you watch two or three gaming videos, youtube trains its brain to understand that hey, this kid must really like games. Let's show him some more of that type of information in his feed.

Amber Ivey:

I like the idea of YouTube training its brain.

Amber Ivey:

I've never heard of it framed that way, but I think it's good framing for kids to think about when they're interacting with AI in tools like YouTube and gaming. I just love that answer. You have had a very exciting career. I know when I was young there was an idea of being a rocket scientist and that's something people would talk about, not necessarily knowing if they were going to do that. But now, with where we are in space and things like that, that's a job where people are really excited about again. So you went from being a rocket scientist to working at Google. Can you share a bit about your journey and how AI played a role?

Terysa Ridgeway:

in it, of course. So initially, as I mentioned before, both of my parents are educators and, if I'm being completely honest, on my maternal and paternal sides my families are filled with educators. Like I have 13 female cousins on my paternal side and every last one of them are in the education field. Oldest sister was also an educator, so it's like that was all I knew. I did well in my math and sciences. So I initially went to college to become a math teacher and teach the kids in my local area Some of the things that I was really good at and that I could teach them right.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Well, it was in my second semester of college where I had to take a computer science class as part of the math curriculum and at the time I didn't really understand what computer science was.

Terysa Ridgeway:

But this was also in the heyday of like MySpace and Black Planet and things like that. So I had been setting up and writing HTML code for my MySpace page I always like to have my diamonds dripping in the background, my music and all of those things but not understanding that all of that was actually intro to coding and it's like troubleshootinghooting going to different websites like how do I make my picture scroll. That was all like what a software engineer does in their day-to-day role. And I was like really shocked by okay, so people make money for doing this type of stuff and this could be a job, and like you retire and like you're really good after doing this. And I was like and in that moment I just talked to my mom. I was like I thought I wanted to be an educator, but it's like I think this is a better fit for me. She was very supportive of it because I had taken some math courses already. I was able to use some of those credits and get a math minor and still get my computer science degree.

Amber Ivey:

Wow, that's amazing. I love that story. I'm going to have you explain a couple of words, so you said paternal, maternal.

Terysa Ridgeway:

What does that mean? So paternal means on my father's side, so that's my family that is related to my dad, so that's his sisters, his brothers and their children, which are my cousins. And then on my maternal side, which would be my mother's side, and her siblings and their children. So that's my family on that side. So both sides of my family are filled with educators.

Amber Ivey:

And then another one, definitely in my heyday. Like when you said MySpace and Black Planet, I like went back to my life where I was also coding in HTML and making sure my page looked great. But kids may not know what MySpace and BlackPanty are. What are those?

Terysa Ridgeway:

So if you're familiar with any type of social media of now I would say, like TikTok, facebook, instagram, even YouTube, you think about where you go for your own profile not necessarily your feed, but your own profile. The cool thing about my hating or when I was a kid, is that you were able to customize or make your profile as individualized as you wanted. So, of course, you have your profile picture, but they had really cool things like you could change your background, you could change music, you could add scrolling images, you could change music, you could add scrolling images, you could place videos there. I guess it tied into my skill set of being a creative and you could just make your profile as creative as you want. And not every two profiles were ever the same. I'm sure you could agree to that.

Amber Ivey:

I don't think I ever saw two profiles that way, one thing you said that I just realized I miss in current social media is the ability to make the space your own, because now, other than your feet your feet you can make it your own, but like your profile, where that sits. It was just cool being able to do those cool things, like you said, and even being able to learn how to do simple HTML and using that language to make sure you had a page that looked different.

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, you brought me back for sure, but I love the explanation.

Terysa Ridgeway:

And the cool thing about that too, is I have a teenage daughter who, of course, loves TikTok, and I had a similar conversation with her too, where I feel like during our generation it was more about how individualized you can be, but here it's like, okay, whatever is the most popular dance, who can also do that same exact dance? So it's like I don't know if it's necessarily stifling their creativity, but I felt that we had more of an outlet than they do.

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, something's happening there for sure. We have a new book and the book is called Let Kids Be Kids, not Robots, because I feel like we've gotten so like programmed to behave a certain way, that we're like restricting kids and that creativity. But I didn't even realize until you said right now that literally social media right now including even for us adults like we're basically mimicking what is happening and you actually get more credit or more praise or record or being recognized if you are doing the same thing. So that's really interesting. Hopefully someone does research on this, because I really want to learn more about this now. So are you ready to play a quick game?

Terysa Ridgeway:

I think so I like games, but I'm kind of nervous. Let's go.

Amber Ivey:

I think you're going to do fine. If not, the good thing is we're going to learn together. It's called Tech Trivia and I'm going to ask you a few questions about technology and AI, and you have to try to answer as quickly as possible. Kids at home, as you know, you can also play along. So are you ready? I am ready. This one is a question that has multiple answers, so I'll start with the easier one. What is a popular voice assistant that uses AI? Google Assistant, which is my favorite.

Terysa Ridgeway:

I have kind of a smart home here, so that's my favorite. Which is my favorite.

Amber Ivey:

I have kind of a smart home here, so that's my favorite Said it earlier, so I was like, oh, she's fine, she'll get this one for sure, and plus it's everywhere, like you said. Okay, the next one. This is I have to be very specific about how I asked this question, because it could have different answers. So what was the name of the first digitally operated and programmable robot ever created?

Terysa Ridgeway:

I don't think I know this one. I know about the first computer, but not necessarily the robot. So I'm interested.

Amber Ivey:

And I thought about that after the fact. I was like I should have asked about the first computer. Because of your book I failed on that. So sorry, kids, we're not making that more alive. But the name of the robot I'm probably going to destroy. Its name is Unimate and it was created in 1954. It's U-N-I-M-A-T-E. The crazy thing is, when you Google this device it was doing things like pouring coffee and stuff. So it was interesting that even back then there was this idea of robots. But then now we're fast forwarding to now what it looks like to think about robots. In a way I'm shocked. They didn't keep up or get in the house, more like george jetson and that type of thing yeah, that's very interesting.

Terysa Ridgeway:

I'm about to look into it. Oh yeah, but it's interesting how things do things like that, like it'll come out, nobody really is interested.

Amber Ivey:

They wait about 10 to 20 years and they do the same thing and it goes crazy oh yeah, I was in la a few years ago and we went to the car museum and there was a whole section of like all these electric cars and I was like wait, we tried this literally decades ago and it didn't go anywhere. But there's like all these electric cars that were released like literally over 40 years ago. So it was just interesting, like you said, to see how sometimes this stuff cycles back around. Yep, are you ready for our last question?

Terysa Ridgeway:

Last question I'm ready.

Amber Ivey:

So what was the name of the first computer virus?

Terysa Ridgeway:

I know this one. It's like a creeper.

Amber Ivey:

Yes, it was a creeper and it was a program that basically a person sent over in through ARPANET which kids? Arpanet was before our version of the internet, it was called ARPANET and the person sent over. I'm the creeper. Catch me if you can. That was the first computer virus Also really weird, but they want to be the creeper, I guess.

Terysa Ridgeway:

And it was named after a Scooby-Doo character or something like that. It was like something that we had to do in college. Yeah, creeper.

Amber Ivey:

Cool, I did not know that.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Thank you for sharing that I learned something new today.

Amber Ivey:

Thank you. So let's shift gears a bit. You're also a bestselling author of the STEM-based children's book series.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Author of the STEM-based children's book series, Terysa Solves it. What inspired you to write these books? So I've always, like I mentioned, always been like a creative. I consider myself to be a bit of a storyteller, not necessarily a writer. I like telling stories, even with my own children. They're always interested to know how things were in the 1900s, like what did you do, what did you do before cell phones? Like they can't imagine a world. Like, okay, so you didn't have a computer, you didn't have a tablet. Like tell me all about the 1900s. Okay, gather around kids, but fuck 1900s, right, right, but it was during the pandemic when, like, things were very slow.

Terysa Ridgeway:

I felt like that's when my creative juices were all-time high and I was telling them different stories but they really were interested in like okay, you didn't have a computer, so what did you do when you were bored, kind of thing. And I told them the story about the very first time that I saw a computer, which to me it was just like it's just the first time I saw a computer. Which to me it was just like it's just the first time I saw a computer. But for them I realized I could see in all of their faces how interested they were in that. So I used that kind of as a basis of a story, made it a little bit more fictitional, some real life elements in it, and created this story.

Terysa Ridgeway:

And, if I'm being fully transparent, I had also recently lost my mom. So I was in this area where I was just like I needed to keep my mind busy and it was the opportunity to write this story about my childhood, include my family there, in a world where we still existed together, and it was my mom who introduced me to computers. So I use that as like the basis of the first story in the series, where it's like I'm getting the computer for the first time and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it and then, as the series goes on're able to continue her story and her legacy through these books that are literally reaching tens of thousands of kids, if not more.

Amber Ivey:

I don't know if y'all broke over a hundred thousand yet, but I know y'all are getting up there Really close. Amazing work, amazing work, thank you. Why do you think it's important for kids to know about AI and how it works, or even about computers and how they work? Because that's the foundational part of all this.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Yeah, I feel that, as much as I say like even I wouldn't necessarily call them the TikTok generation, but just like the difference in generations between us, is that the cool thing I feel about them is that they're super interested in technology, and I feel that when I was around their age, it was more like the nerds and people weren't necessarily interested.

Terysa Ridgeway:

So I feel like when the computer wave first hit, it was only a certain type of people that were interested in it, true. And then I feel the second wave was when social media started with like the MySpace and things like that, and then like we started to kind of catch on, but it was, I mean, computers had been around for a while before people had started to catch on, and I feel like AI is the next wave. There are things that I kind of feel that you know kind of come and go, but I feel like AI is here to stay and I feel that it's very important for children to at least understand. You don't necessarily have to be a software engineer and rocket scientist, you just have to be curious enough to understand the technology, because it truly is the wave of the future and you don't want to get left behind on that one.

Amber Ivey:

That's such a good point, and that's one of the reasons why I want to talk about this stuff for kids is that I don't want kids to be left behind, and I do believe it's something that's going to change all of our lives. I think it's already starting to change our lives, how we work, how we think. Like a lot of people say, the next 10 years, we don't know what the jobs are Like. We can't predict for the first time what the jobs are going to be, so we want to go the storytelling route.

Terysa Ridgeway:

I do plan to do more activity-based learning, but I feel that for a certain group of readers little girls that look like me they want something that's relatable. So I start with very simple concepts of like just being inquisitive, like I was the nosy little kid. Like, okay, get out of the kitchen. The adults are talking, okay, right, I'm still here, just naturally curious, and I feel that that's a great skillset to have for an engineer. But you don't normally see kids that look like me being engineers, so it's like, just tying those two together has been a great thing for the children's book series, because now little girls that look like the character and I have the book here little girls that look like the character- I love it.

Terysa Ridgeway:

I was going to ask you to pull it up.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Like even from down from her ponytails, to like her fluffy top and things like that, just to show that you know we all can be engineers. It's not like a certain type of person that can do that. So, like I said, I go the storytelling route In the first book. It's the day before the character's eighth birthday and she's picking up all of these clues from everybody's just being so weird around. Her Mom is hanging up the phone as soon as she enters the room, her dad is doing weird things and it's just like what is going on and she's figuring out somebody must be planning a surprise birthday party for her and it's like even just simple concepts like that I tie into problem solving. The character gets a surprise and she tries to figure out how to get it to work.

Amber Ivey:

I love the fact that you're using storytelling as a way to do that, because one kids are like that's how they learn, and I think adults learn like that as well. But I think it's just important to help kids get the concepts early. Like you said around problem solving and even as you were talking about it, literally she's thinking like a computer to be able to solve this problem or solve the scenario that's around her. I absolutely love how you set this book up and how you continue to build out these series. What are some other ways kids can start learning about things like AI, computers or even create their own projects?

Terysa Ridgeway:

There are a few online resources that I highly recommend For my children. I specifically started them with Scratch Junior and Scratch, which is block-based programming, which takes away a lot of the things that I find that I wouldn't necessarily say frustrate kids, but I feel that it could be a limitation, which is syntax Something as simple as a colon or a bracket could throw an entire program off. So I feel like block-based programming is a great introduction because it gets rid of that. It teaches you about logic and sequence and things like that. And in addition to Scratch and Scratch Junior my two oldest children I was able to sit them down on a computer, start doing lessons. They knew they were learning something. Of course, they picked it up because I'm their mom, right, right.

Terysa Ridgeway:

But I would say for my younger two, I didn't go that route. I had already started my children's book series and a lot of the teachers and parents were with children that were very interested, wanted to know like what's next? Like okay, they're interested. How do I keep that interest going? So I worked with this company named Alilo, where there's a little coding robot where the kids can literally program it using a few different methods. You can use the buttons at the top to move.

Amber Ivey:

I bought my niece one of those for her birthday.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Yeah, oh, you did Very nice, thank you. So you can use the arrows to make it move a certain direction, which is basically an algorithm. So what an algorithm does is it gives a specific set of instructions for a computer to follow. These are specific instructions that your computer, the robot, will follow, and as soon as you give it to them, they'll start pressing buttons, and I find that that's the best way to learn. Like three years old start coding, okay, as you get a little bit older.

Terysa Ridgeway:

I have a set of puzzle pieces where it also has a set of instructions. So what children do is they build a puzzle path for the robot to follow. If they build it correctly, it'll follow along and it'll give them some positive reinforcement. If it's incorrect, it'll let them know that, and then they troubleshoot and they fix the path. And then the most advanced one is I have a mobile app as well, available on the Amazon store. Yeah, it's only for Android. Currently I'm an iPhone. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out something working on a few other things. I'm definitely trying to get it for iPhone. That's the biggest request, but using the same block-based program that I mentioned from Scratch, and Scratch Junior is built on that same framework where you can literally use block-based programming to control your robot. You can use voice commands using AI and you could use just literally your finger and draw a path and it'll follow.

Amber Ivey:

Oh that's so cool. One, can you tell the audience two things? When did you start this? The company, everything.

Terysa Ridgeway:

It's been in my head for a very long time Pen to paper 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. I started writing in 2019, formalized, like my LLC and those business types of things, in 2020.

Amber Ivey:

That is so amazing. And kids I just wanted to say the timing, because she's four years in and she's created not only a book series. We're going to talk about some of the other things in a few minutes a robot PJs like there are things that you can literally wear associated with this, but she did this in a very quick amount of time. In reality, and I know for kids that may be your whole entire life at this point, but that's a very short amount of time that she's been able to do such amazing things. And then can you talk a little bit about just any other projects you're working on right now that you're really excited about.

Terysa Ridgeway:

I would say the one that I'm most excited about right now is like just continuing to build that brand and introducing kids to computer science and then being excited about it. I recently launched animated series on YouTube where you'll see the character, I would say, in real life, but not necessarily Like she's moving around, she's talking, she's doing activities and she's also inviting the little viewers along with her on the journey. So if you have a robot, you can follow along on the journey with her.

Amber Ivey:

I absolutely love it and make sure you all check that out. We will have everything that was mentioned today in the show notes, so make sure you work with your parents to look at that. If you want to see the book, the robot or any of that, make sure you go from the audio to the YouTube, because we have visuals of everything that Terysa just talked about and I want to make sure you see it. So how can kids get involved and learn more about computers, ai and all these different things that are coming to them as they're growing up?

Terysa Ridgeway:

I would say there are a lot of really great companies and I'm glad that it's being more diversified in how kids are learning. I feel that it's starting in the school systems. Now you can go to your local Walmart and Target and find STEM related activities Some of my favorites. My kids love your book by the way.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Absolutely love it. And they're at the point where they're reading it on their own now. So it's like, okay, I read it myself a few times and I say few lightly, it's been over 20, but now they're reading it on their own. So that's awesome, that's the goal. Yeah, they're, they're so into it.

Amber Ivey:

I talk about AI for adults. Before this and I was like adults. We're a little bit harder to adapt to new things, and I have my nieces and nephew. At the time my nephew wasn't born, but now he is and he's in the world. He just had his one year birthday. I wanted them to move from just being on these tablets and devices or saying hey siri, hey google or whatever, to like understanding these technologies and being able to interact with them.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Beautiful book. Kudos to you. It's truly a beautiful book and beautiful story. Thank you, we really loved it. It almost felt like a movie when I read it the first time. That's the goal, yeah, and it definitely felt that way. Beautiful STEM books and lots of wonderful STEM authors felt that way. Beautiful STEM books and lots of wonderful STEM authors. I'm starting to get to meet STEM educational toys, which is where I'm kind of teetering. I feel like a lot of my passion is kind of being driven there now. Like every now and then I'll have like a creative idea and it's like okay, I need to get this in a book. Like I'm working on three new books right now. Oh, wow, that's amazing. But I'm also working on toys and they both give me different types of excitement.

Amber Ivey:

So, yeah, I feel you on that, even like I know this is not about me, but really quickly, since you opened the door for five seconds, I'm going to take the five seconds. The book I've actually never mentioned on the podcast, so I'll mention it here today, which is crazy, but we have a book called AI meets AI and, to your point, one thing I love about this space is the ability to be creative. Like my day job is I focus on data, so that is very logical and, of course, there are ways to be creative in that very logical part of my brain. But the creative part around, like doing stuff for kids, really excites me. So I definitely resonate with that and definitely understand where you're coming from there and the want to create other new things that go along with it. It just allows you to just you get the education bug, where you want to help teach people and train people. You get the creative bug, like there's so many things that are happening when you're able to create and I appreciate you sharing that because I definitely resonate.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Yeah, absolutely. That's 100% where I am Like. I need the balance of using both sides of my brain.

Amber Ivey:

Oh yes, kids learn now, so we're going to do something fun to learn more about you. It's called Two Truths and a Dream, so I want you to tell us about two interesting facts about either your career or your life, and one dream you've had since you were a kid, and we'll try to guess which one is the dream. And kids, as usual, make sure you're guessing at home as well. Are you ready? I am ready, go for it and I'll try to guess. Okay, try to stay away from your bio, but we'll still see.

Terysa Ridgeway:

Okay. The first item is I aspired to be an astronaut Okay. The second one is I'm a mother of four.

Amber Ivey:

Okay.

Terysa Ridgeway:

And the third one is I worked on a technology that is in space currently technology that is in space currently.

Amber Ivey:

Oh, wow, okay. So first was aspire to be an astronaut. Second was mother of four, and then third is worked on a technology that is currently in space right now. All those things are very good. So, kids, make sure you're thinking about the interview and using some of your problem solving reasoning to figure out which ones are the facts and which ones are the dream.

Amber Ivey:

I'm going to start with the first one, which is you wanted to be an astronaut Because you were a rocket scientist. That could be possible. So I'm going to leave that one to the side for now. For the second one, you're the mother of four. I did listen. You never said you're mother of four, but I did listen to the fact that you had two older kids and two younger kids. So I'm going to say that is a fact. So I'm going to move on from that one and put that in the fact box. And then the last one is you have a technology that is in space right now because you were a rocket scientist. That is also possibly true. Oh, this is hard, kids. Make sure you're thinking about it and thinking about the dream. Feel free to shout it out. I'm going to say the astronaut is the dream you are absolutely correct okay, but back up, what technology do you have in space?

Amber Ivey:

that's so cool. I was actually like I'm like is that I don't know? It seems so far out there that I didn't know. Oh my gosh, it's so cool yeah, yeah, yeah.

Terysa Ridgeway:

So it's like the really cool thing that I worked on very early on in my career that is still being used to this day and this is like 20 years old at this point. It's something called a toad decoy, where it's like it can be placed in rockets. It could be placed in missiles, it could be placed in satellites in this example it's placed in a satellite where it's you want to prevent the bad guys from reverse engineering your technology. So it's somewhat of a scrambler where it's like you can't just tap into it and figure out what cool technologies are inside. Wow, and I was able to work on that right out of college.

Amber Ivey:

One. This interview has been great, and the fact that you've done all these cool things that is so amazing. Thank you for that, because you're contributing to making our world safer. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you for sharing that story Before we go. Do you have any advice for kids who are interested in learning more about AI, computers and how it can be used to help people?

Terysa Ridgeway:

I do. I would say curious, because if you're interested now, that means you're very curious. So keep that up, keep looking, keep digging, keep finding every tidbit of information that you can, and stay curious.

Amber Ivey:

I love that. The funny thing is, I think every interview everyone says something about curiosity somewhere in the interview, so that for me has been like the thing where I'm like, oh, wow, it's really around this idea of asking those questions and I really appreciate you for calling that out. Is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners?

Terysa Ridgeway:

The only thing I would like to share is, if you would like to connect with me on social media, across all platforms, you can find me at Tirsa solves it, t E R Y S A solves it, and that's on Facebook, instagram, youtube, tik TOK, linkedin everywhere you could find me there.

Amber Ivey:

I love it and we'll make sure to drop it in the show notes kit. So make sure you work with your parents to get those resources and follow her on all the different websites. Thank you so much for joining us today, Terysa, and thank you all to all the listeners who are continuing to listen in. Don't forget to subscribe to AI for Kids and stay carried. Thank you for joining us as we explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. Don't keep this adventure to yourself. Download it, share it with your friends and let everyone else in on the fun. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube. See you next time on AI for Kids.

People on this episode

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Amber Ivey (AI)

Host