Motivation for designing an AI Camp for Youth

Teenagers interact with artificial intelligence (AI) every day, whether by taking a creative selfie using photo filters or discovering new songs through automated streaming services. Yet, few high school students have the opportunity to use AI themselves to create systems that enhance human abilities, analyse genetic variation, or monitor deforestation in the Amazon.

This immersive program opens the hood on AI technologies, enabling students to experiment with real tools and build their own AI-driven solutions. At the AI Academy, Alfaisal University brings together students from across the country for intensive training, collaborative projects, and guest lectures delivered by leading AI researchers.

Defined broadly as a branch of computer science that enables machines to make predictions and guide decisions, AI is transforming how we live and work. The program aims to demystify this powerful technology and help students explore how AI can become part of their daily lives, and part of the solutions to the challenges they care about in their communities.

Approach

We will begin with an introduction to AI fundamentals alongside product design principles and exercises. These foundational skills will then be applied within the context of AI-enabled technologies.

In this program, a co-designer is a community member who experiences a particular need and has an idea for an AI-driven solution that could improve their quality of life by simplifying a challenging or frustrating activity.

Through example problems and collaboration with co-designers, students will learn how to conduct interviews to elicit product requirements and translate those requirements into prototypes. With early prototypes, they will iterate through multiple design cycles, incorporating user feedback to refine their ideas and develop AI-enabled solutions that effectively meet end-user needs.

Pre-boarding in the AI Academy

The orientation course will introduce students to key concepts and foundational skills essential for the summer camp. The latter portion of the course will feature an open-ended design activity that encourages students to prepare a co-design proposal, which will serve as the foundation for their immersive learning projects.

The orientation course will include the following modules:

• What are AI-enabled technologies?
• Design thinking
• Design processes
• Technical skills development
• Co-design proposal formation activity

Curriculum

The three-week summer component of Alfaisal University’s AI Academy gives students the opportunity to apply and expand upon the skills gained during the orientation course. Throughout the program, they iteratively refine their initial proposals into fully developed, functional prototypes through a blend of hybrid lectures, hands-on design exercises, technical mentorship, and project management activities. These experiences culminate in students developing a custom AI-enabled solution for a community member with specific requirements for technology that enhances their daily life.

Guided by Alfaisal University researchers and student mentors, participants engage with prior AI solutions developed at the university and collaborate closely with community members to ensure their projects address real-world needs. By the end of the course, students will have developed a clear understanding of the engineering process required to build an AI-based solution, learned to identify requirements from user interviews, recognized potential technical approaches, and constructed their own prototype solutions.

The technical skills component of the curriculum will be tailored to each student’s project and may include areas such as computer-aided design (CAD), 3D printing, and electronics. Past projects from similar AU programs and makethons have included navigation aids for the blind, emotion-expression cards, tremor-stabilizing tools, and gaze-controlled communication devices, demonstrating the creativity and social impact of student-driven AI innovation.