Middle School AI and Computer Science Projects
Ever wonder how self-driving cars work? Or if chatbots will be able to hold human-like conversations? Or how can AI be leveraged to tackle some of today’s biggest issues including climate change and social justice?
Inspirit AI students will work collaboratively in small groups of 5-6 students to implement a mentor-led socially impactful AI project.
Project Highlights for 2026
AI Chatbots for Education
Create your own AI-powered study assistants using OpenAI’s tools, while also keeping in mind important ethical considerations.
Creating Art with Generative AI
Use generative AI to create vivid stories and art and examine the limitations
and ethical risks of AI in
creative fields.
Disaster Relief
Explore how AI can support disaster relief by analyzing social media posts of
people affected, to
optimize how key resources are allocated.
Movie Recommender System
Build an AI-powered movie recommender system using IMDb's movie database, similar to a real-life Netflix Recommender System.
Sketch Recognition
Build AI models to recognize hand-drawn sketches and discuss real-world applications, from digital
art tools to assistive technology.
Sustainable Farming
Use AI to enhance sustainable farming by predicting crop yield from soil's bacterial composition.
Project Curriculum Developers
Meet some of our exceptional team working to develop exciting new projects based on their own research and expertise in AI.
Kayla Holman
Education: MIT, Master’s in Computer Science
MIT, Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Research Experience: Kayla’s expertise lies in robotics—she previously worked on autonomous driving at Cruise and robotics software at Vecna Robotics. She also researched methods for factory line operators to effectively work alongside robots.
Greta Farrell
Education: MIT, Bachelor’s in Mathematical Economics, Minor in Public Policy
Industry Experience: Greta has experience teaching in a variety of schools—urban, rural, suburban, as well as public, charter, private, and boarding. Before joining Inspirit as a curriculum developer, she taught middle and high school math at Khan Lab School.
Erica Yuen
Arts and Humanities Projects
Education: MIT, Master’s in Computer Science
MIT, Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering
Research Experience: Erica’s work focuses on Human-Computer Interaction, computer vision, image processing. She also has research experience exploring how we can use machine learning to enable creativity.
“Pioneers is my favorite program to teach.
I love the enthusiasm every student brings—they are all so excited to learn! I’ve watched students develop lifelong passions for AI and gain the skills necessary to pursue those dreams. I love giving students that opportunity.”
– David McCowin, Instructor & Curriculum Manager, Yale Student
Program Offerings
AI Creators:
Grades 4-6
Real World AI Applications
AI + Ethics
Block-Based Coding
UX/UI Design Basics
Project-Building
AI Pioneers:
Grades 6-8
Python Programming
AI Algorithms + Techniques
Web App Deployment
NLP Chatbot Creation
AI + Social Good Projects
AI Scholars:
Grades 8-12
Regression
Computer Vision
Neural Networks
Natural Language Processing
AI Project-Building
