AI Summer Camp
Step Into the World Shaping Tomorrow
The UConn School of Computing (SoC), in collaboration with The Vergnano Institute for Impact (VII), is thrilled to offer the 2nd annual, AI summer camp for high school students!
This one week day camp will provide an early exposure to Artificial Intelligence (AI) foundations, concepts, tools, and programming, which build a platform for developing logic, abstraction, and computational thinking. The global job market is being shaped by AI, and early literacy helps students make informed academic and career choices as AI becomes central to many industries.
This is a forward‑thinking initiative aimed at students at a formative age where curiosity is high and self‑belief in technical subjects can be nurtured. Introducing AI concepts early demystifies the field, makes AI feel approachable, and builds a foundation of confidence in STEM as students transition to high school. The camp will also help students understand AI’s impact at societal, local, and personal scales, promoting thoughtful digital citizenship.
Most middle school and high school curricula do not yet include dedicated AI components, despite AI being one of the most transformative technologies today. This summer camp supplements traditional instruction and can serve as a pipeline to high school computer science or robotics programs.
This summer camp day program will be led by UConn SoC faculty members, Profs. Jinbo Bi (main contact), Derek Aguiar, Tingting Yu, Sheida Nabavi, and Yufeng Wu, along with PhD student instructors.
Who’s Eligible?
AI Summer Camp is for rising 9th- 12th Grade High School Students. Younger students who have completed Algebra I are welcome. No prior coding experience is necessary for the camp.
Neurodivergent students are welcome, and we are prepared to provide accommodations to support a positive learning experience.
Students must commit to attending all 5 days of camp.
Important Information
Program Dates: July 27–31, 2026
Location: In person at the UConn Storrs Campus
Deadline to Apply: July 1, 2026 (first consideration, rolling admissions after)
Admissions and Financial Assistance Decisions Sent: July 8, 2026
Deadline to Commit: July 15, 2026
Deadline for Payment: July 15, 2026
Financial Information
Program Fee: $250
This includes morning snacks, lunch and all supplies for the program. We will utilize high performing computers at UConn, so a laptop/personal computer is not needed.
Financial Assistance
50% or 100% financial assistance is available for students with demonstrated financial need.
In the application, there is a question to indicate if you would like to be considered for financial assistance, and upload relevant documentation.
Tentative Teaching Content
The material will not assume any background knowledge beyond the standard middle school math curriculum.
Topics Planned
- Fundamentals of artificial intelligence
- Introduction to machine learning
- Basic programming in Python
- Applications of large language models
- AI limitations, ethics, and social impacts
Day 1
- Introductory games
- Lesson: Basic Concepts in AI
- Activity: AI Bingo
- Demonstration: Using Python to Control a Computer
Day 2
- Lesson: Randomized Algorithms and AI Safety
- Activity: Hacking ChatGPT
- Activity: Try Programming with Scratch
- Demonstration and Game: Tour UConn’s Autonomous Driving Lab
Day 3
- Lesson: Introduction to Machine Learning
- Activity/Game: Human-Operated Regression on the Student Union Mall
- Lesson: Introduction to Machine Learning, continued
- Demonstrations: Machine Learning Models
- Social Event: Movie Watching
Day 4
- Lesson: Supervised and Unsupervised Machine Learning
- Activity: Train Your Own Machine Learning Model
- Demonstration and Game: Tour UConn’s Autonomous Driving Lab, continued
Day 5
- Lesson: Neural Network Basics
- Demonstration: Neural Network Visualizations
- Activity: Train Your Own Machine Learning Model, continued
- Social Event: Ice Cream Social
Program Schedule
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 8:30–9:00 AM | Drop-Off / Sign-In |
| 9:00 AM–12:00 PM | Morning Sessions |
| 12:00–1:00 PM | Lunch |
| 1:00–4:00 PM | Afternoon Sessions |
| 4:00–4:30 PM | Pick-Up / Sign-Out |
A Preview of AI Camp
Autonomous Cars
One of the events is for students to tour the autonomous driving lab and test run autonomous prototype car. Below is a video provided by a high school research team who performed research on the prototype cars two years back.
Computer Labs
Throughout the camp, student work sessions will take place in some of UConn’s computer labs. Take a look at students testing their AI models.
Thanks for your interest in AI Summer Camp! For questions, email AIcamp@uconn.edu.
UPDATED 8/4/26