Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Build and deploy an AI application in this 2-week program for high school students on UC Berkeley’s campus.
Rated 4.2 out of 5 for the instructor by students who took this course in 2026.
Course Description
What separates an AI user from an AI builder? Students learn Python fundamentals and the structure of modern artificial intelligence, including models, tools, agents, and systems. Interactive talks, whiteboard activities, demonstrations, and coding labs connect concepts with the practical choices involved in building with data.
Projects move through classification, decision trees, bias audits, neural networks, computer vision, multimodal systems, natural language processing, word embeddings, large language models, and prompt engineering. Students train and evaluate models, interpret outputs with tools such as saliency maps, explore semantic search, and build a tool-calling agent that can take defined actions.
In small groups, students select an AI for Social Good problem while each student builds and deploys a custom application. The project cycle includes data exploration, model building, evaluation, iteration, ethics, and presentation. Final work includes a live app and Demo Day presentation, supported by workshops on AI research and responsible project communication.
This two-week Summer Discovery full-day academy takes place on the UC Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California. The academy is available to residential and commuter students. Beyond class, students connect focused academic work with campus life, growing independence, and clearer direction about what they may want to study or pursue next.
What Will You Do?
• Use Python to explore and manipulate a real-world dataset
• Train a decision tree and conduct a bias audit
• Build and stress-test an image classifier
• Explore embeddings, semantic search, and prompt-engineering strategies
• Create a tool-calling AI agent and application workflow
• Build, deploy, and present an AI for Social Good app
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Train and evaluate introductory machine-learning models using Python
• Build an AI agent or application with defined tools and responsible constraints
• Develop, deploy, and present an evidence-tested AI project
Students leave with a live AI application, project presentation, and stronger skills in coding, evaluation, ethics, and deployment.
Why AI Literacy Skills Matter
Building AI requires students to understand what happens between data and output. Training, testing, evaluation, and interpretation show why a model can appear accurate while still failing on important cases. Bias audits make the consequences of data choices visible.
Application design adds responsibility. Students define a useful problem, select tools, consider security and ethics, and test whether the system serves real people. These skills combine coding with research, communication, and judgment, foundations that matter across fields increasingly shaped by AI.
Who Should Attend?
This academy is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and are interested in artificial intelligence, coding, data science, computer vision, language models, product design, or social-impact technology. It welcomes students who want to move from using AI tools to understanding and building them.
Participants should be ready for hands-on Python work, model testing, teamwork, ethical discussion, and iterative app development. Optional preparation materials support Python and AI basics, and mentors balance challenge with approachability. Persistence and willingness to debug are important.
Recommended Program
Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 UC Berkeley program.
Why UC Berkeley?
UC Berkeley gives high-school students the opportunity to pursue serious academic exploration in a campus environment shaped by scientific inquiry, new ideas, and an active connection to the wider Bay Area. The Berkeley Hills, distinctive architecture, and green spaces make the experience feel different from an ordinary school routine.
Students learn alongside peers, become more independent, and experience the pace and possibility of university life. The Bay Area context adds exposure to a region influenced by research, technology, entrepreneurship, culture, and public debate. For families, the value is not campus prestige alone. It is the combination of academic depth, community, and a student gaining clearer insight into the subjects, environments, and possible directions that genuinely motivate them.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive