Turning India's 10–15 year-olds from AI consumers into AI developers
Live online · 12 sessions over 6 weeks · taught in English
AI is arriving in Indian classrooms from Class 3 — most students still aren't taught how it works
From session 2026-27, CBSE has introduced Computational Thinking & AI as an integrated part of the curriculum for Classes 3 to 8 — built into subjects every student already takes rather than offered as a choice. Other boards are moving in the same direction. Ages 10 to 15 spans roughly Classes 5 to 10, which puts this program right on that cohort.
the classes where CBSE now builds Computational Thinking & AI into regular subjects from session 2026-27 — every student, not an opt-in choice
CBSE's optional AI Skill Subject code for Grades 9–10
Four modules, one goal: build with AI, not just talk about it
Foundations
What AI actually is — and isn't — and how machine learning is different from simple rule-following. Explained through apps you already use: UPI payments, weather forecasts and photo search.
Computational Thinking
Breaking a big problem into small steps, spotting patterns, and ignoring what doesn't matter — the same thinking that helps with exams and with solving everyday problems.
Hands-On Creation
Writing prompts that get AI to do what you want, building an app that recognizes images, and creating an AI helper with no coding required.
Ethics & Evaluation
Testing AI for unfair bias, learning to catch AI when it makes things up, spotting deepfakes, and seeing what real AI careers look like.
Every module ends with something the student has actually made, not a quiz score — and that work is saved to a public Student AI Portfolio colleges and employers can open and check for themselves.
The AI didn’t get smarter. The instructions got better.
In the Practitioner tier, students find out why “Tell me about volcanoes” gets a vague answer, and learn a four-part checklist for rebuilding prompts like it. The prompt here is modelled on the improved one the tier’s first lesson opens with, shown with the kind of answer it gets back.
Prompt
You’re a geologist. Explain to a Class 8 student why Barren Island, India’s only active volcano, sometimes erupts. 3 bullet points, each under 20 words. Use one everyday comparison, like a soda bottle.
Response
- Barren Island sits where one tectonic plate slides under another. Deep below, rock melts into magma.
- Magma holds gas under pressure, like the fizz trapped in a shaken soda bottle.
- When the pressure gets too strong, magma bursts out. Then the volcano rests until pressure builds again.
- Task
- Explain why it erupts
- Context
- For a Class 8 student
- Format
- 3 bullet points, under 20 words each
- Constraints
- One everyday comparison
How the Winter Lab actually runs
The founding cohort is open now. It runs in two stages — live and online, so a student can join from any city.
Stage 1 · Main program
12 live sessions over 6 weeks, in three tiers of four.
- 1
Beginner
4 sessions
How AI actually works and where it came from, the types of AI, chatbots versus purpose-built AI tools, the buzzwords decoded — and where your data really goes when you use a chatbot.
- 2
Intermediate
4 sessions
How today's AI tools are built on large language models, why two models answer the same question differently, what prompts, context, tokens and parameters actually are, the basics of AI governance, what is safe to share with an AI tool, and where AI image generation breaks down.
- 3
Practitioner
4 sessions
Prompt engineering as a craft, keeping a long conversation on track, spotting and fact-checking AI hallucinations — and a lot of hands-on practice.
Stage 2 · Expert tier
A separate 8-session stage, by invitation only.
The capstone stage, earned by the students who go furthest
After the main program, a select few students — the ones who show the strongest potential across the three tiers — are invited into eight further sessions built around one real capstone: a chatbot, an image classifier, or a bias audit of their own. It ends with a presentation at a live online Demo Day that parents join by link and a published entry in their Student AI Portfolio.
There is nothing to register for here. Every student starts with the 12-session main program, and invitations to the Expert tier are made from inside it — so this is an earned next step, not an automatic one. The main program stands complete on its own: every student who finishes it has built real work and learned to question it.
Signing up is for Stage 1, the 12-session main program. Writes to learn@youngaiengineerslab.com — a real person replies.
What makes this different
Plenty of short AI and coding programs are already on offer. Three things about ours are deliberately not the same.
A companion to the syllabus, not a weekend add-on
Usually
AI for school students is usually sold as an extracurricular luxury, bolted on after school hours.
Here
We're built to sit alongside the syllabus a school already runs — live online sessions that reinforce what school teaches rather than compete with it.
Depth on the two skills that decide everything
Usually
Prompt engineering isn't a named unit in most school syllabi, and neither is checking an AI's output for things it made up.
Here
Both get dedicated sessions here: how to instruct a model precisely, and how to catch it when it is confidently wrong. These are the skills a student uses every single day.
Every module ends in something they built
Usually
Short AI courses tend to end in a slide deck, a quiz score, or a certificate of attendance.
Here
Students finish with working prompts, hands-on exercises, and their own tests of where a model breaks down — recorded in a portfolio someone else can actually open and check.
Who teaches it
An IIT Bombay alumnus joining as instructor for each session
Our co-founder and Head of Curriculum is an IIT Bombay alumnus and a working AI/ML practitioner — and he teaches every live session himself, not just the first one. No recorded video course, and no script read out by a part-time tutor: your child is learning from someone who builds AI systems for a living.
Meet the teamThe founding cohort is the proof
We're deliberately running one strong cohort — taught by the founders, ending in a live online Demo Day that parents join by link — before we pitch a single school. The students' work is the case study.
Schools and sponsors
Partnerships come after our founding cohort
School and sponsor partnerships are planned after the founding cohort. When schools are onboarded, our live online sessions will run for the classroom. If you would like to hear when partnerships open, send us a note at partner@youngaiengineerslab.com.
Questions parents ask us first
Who is this for?
Students aged 10 to 15 — roughly Grades 5 to 10, across CBSE, ICSE and state boards. The three tiers of the main program scale with age, so a 10-year-old and a 15-year-old meet the same ideas at different depths rather than sitting through the same material. It's the range where AI tools are already part of daily life, and where schools are starting to teach AI inside regular subjects.
Where and how does it run?
Live and online only, with the instructor teaching every live session. The main program is 12 sessions over 6 weeks, taught in English, and a student can join from any city. There is no recorded video course. Device, schedule and platform details are shared when you enquire.
Does my child need to know how to code?
No prior coding required. We start from what AI is and what it is not, and the building happens through prompts, image classifiers and no-code tools. Curiosity matters more here than any head start in programming.
What language is it taught in?
English. All sessions, materials and exercises are in English.
Why now?
Government policy, the new CBSE syllabus, and growing parent concern are all lining up in the same two years. The clearest signal: from session 2026-27, Computational Thinking & AI is an integrated part of CBSE's curriculum for Classes 3 to 8 — taught inside subjects every student already takes, rather than offered as a choice. Meanwhile students already have AI in their pocket, and most teachers have had no hands-on, project-based training to work with.
Read our mission, vision and goalHow does this relate to what school already teaches? Does it replace it?
It supplements school — it replaces nothing. For CBSE schools specifically: Computational Thinking & AI is integrated into Classes 3 to 8 for every student, and Artificial Intelligence (Code 417) is an optional but substantial Skill Subject in Grades 9 and 10. Other boards are moving in the same direction at their own pace. We're designed as a companion either way: a short, project-dense block that gives students reps on building and questioning AI systems.
What is the Student AI Portfolio, and why does it matter?
It's a public, verifiable record of what your child actually built, rather than a private folder of files. Some school syllabi already ask students to keep a portfolio of their AI activities — CBSE's Code 417 does, for Grades 9 and 10. Ours is built to be opened and checked by someone else: the kind of evidence that holds up on a college or hackathon application.
What will my child actually build?
Modules end in something real rather than a quiz — working prompts, hands-on exercises with AI tools, and their own tests of where a model breaks down. Students later invited into the selective Expert tier go on to build one full capstone — a chatbot, an image classifier, or a bias audit — and present it at a live online Demo Day that parents join by link. That invitation comes from inside the main program, so there is nothing separate to sign up for.
See how the two stages runWhat does it cost, and when does the next cohort start?
The founding Winter Lab cohort is open now. Email us and we will send you the current dates and fees, with no obligation.
Email learn@youngaiengineerslab.comCan schools or sponsors partner with you?
Not yet. We're running one founding cohort first, and school and sponsor partnerships are planned after it. When schools are onboarded, our live online sessions will run for the classroom. If you'd like to hear when partnerships open, email partner@youngaiengineerslab.com.
Email partner@youngaiengineerslab.comSign up for the Winter Batch
The founding batch of the Winter Lab is open right now — the 12-session main program, taught live online over 6 weeks, so a student can join from any city. Your child is already using AI — this is where they learn to build with it. Send one email and we will reply with the dates, the fees and exactly what your child will build.
Schools and sponsors: partnerships are planned after the founding cohort; email partner@youngaiengineerslab.com to hear when they open.
Student AI Portfolio
Example entry
Class 8 Science Revision Bot
Answers revision questions from Class 8 Science, and politely says no to anything else.
- Chatbot
- Built without code
- Tested on off-topic questions
- Student: Why does a steel ship float when a steel nail sinks?
- Revision Bot: It's the shape. A ship's hollow hull pushes aside lots of water, and that water pushes back up hard enough to hold it. A nail pushes aside very little, so it sinks.
- Student: Who will win the next cricket match?
- Revision Bot: I can't know that, and it isn't Class 8 Science. Ask me about force, light or sound instead!