Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Build and deploy an AI application in this 3-week program for high school students on Yale University’s campus.
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 three-week course is part of Summer Discovery’s Institute for the Gifted program on Yale University’s campus. Beyond class, students connect focused academic work with campus life, growing independence, and clearer direction about what students 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 course 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. Persistence and willingness to debug are important.
Students must also meet the Institute for the Gifted eligibility requirements listed in the program FAQ and complete the program application.
Recommended by Nearly 9 out of 10 Students
Based on students surveyed in 2026 about Summer Discovery programs at Yale University campus.
Why Yale University?
The program takes place on Yale University’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut.
The campus’s courtyards, architecture, libraries, and academic spaces create a vivid setting for learning beyond a familiar school environment, while New Haven’s connections to law, theater, science, and the arts extend that context into the city. Students learn alongside peers with similar interests, navigate campus life, and gain independence through everyday choices. The experience creates space to deepen an interest, test it in a more advanced setting, and consider what they may want to study or pursue next.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive