AI & Machine Learning Programs & Competitions for High School Students

AI programs for high schoolers have exploded: research mentorships, university summer courses, and national challenges in machine learning and data ethics.

Colleges increasingly expect applicants claiming an AI interest to show real work — a trained model, a research poster, a competition entry. Start with these.

34 verified programs match this page; 23 of the featured listings are completely free; 14 can be done online.

Featured programs

Browse 30+ curated programs for high school students:

• Presidential AI Challenge — White House Office of Science and Technology Policy: National K-12 AI competition where students build real-world AI solutions for community challenges, with finals at the White House.
• Microsoft AI for Good Challenge — Microsoft: Empower global impact by joining this free AI competition for high schoolers. Develop machine learning skills, boost college applications, and tackle
• World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth (WAICY) — Ready AI: Join a global AI competition for grades 6-12 to solve real-world problems using artificial intelligence. Build STEM skills, boost college applications
• Kaggle Data Science Competitions — Kaggle/Google: Join exciting online data science competitions for high school students! Build Python coding skills, explore AI, and strengthen your college applicati
• The Knowledge Society — TKS: Join a 10-month online STEM accelerator for high schoolers in grades 9-11. Build AI, biotech, and quantum computing projects to boost college apps and
• Stanford AI4ALL — Stanford University: Discover a free summer program empowering high school juniors with hands-on AI experience, skill-building for college applications, and diversity-focu
• MIT Global AI Hackathon — MIT RAISE & App Inventor Foundation: Join a free virtual AI hackathon for high schoolers to develop apps tackling global challenges. Gain hands-on STEM experience and boost your college a
• International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) — IOAI Foundation: Compete in the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence to enhance AI and machine learning skills, boost college applications, and gain hands
• MIT Battlecode — MIT: Develop coding, AI, and problem-solving skills in this free hybrid competition for high school students. Boost college applications with hands-on prog
• Roborace Autonomous Racing Series — Roborace Holdings Limited: Roborace is an international autonomous racing series showcasing AI and robotics in full-scale electric race cars.
• NWEA Data Science for Everyone Competition — NWEA: Join a free virtual data science competition for high school students to predict student performance using real-world education data. Build skills for
• SECME AI Contest (High School) — SECME: Explore AI and machine learning in this free high school competition. Build programming skills, analyze energy data, and boost your college applicatio
• Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes (SCSI) - CS Tracks — Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies: Explore advanced computer science topics like AI and programming in this virtual summer program for grades 9-11. Build skills for college and future S
• MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) — MIT Lincoln Laboratory & MIT School of Engineering: Rigorous 4-week STEM program. Students work on real engineering challenges in robotics, AI, cybersecurity. Free for selected students.
• Princeton AI4ALL — Princeton University: Transform your summer with a free AI program for high schoolers. Build Python, machine learning, and ethics skills while boosting college applications
• SAE Autonomous Vehicle Challenge — SAE International: Design and build autonomous vehicles. Cutting-edge experience with AI, machine learning, and robotics in transportation.
• Intel oneAPI Developer Challenge — Intel Corporation: Global coding challenge using Intel's oneAPI toolkit; cash prizes
• DARPA Grand Challenge (Autonomous Vehicles) — Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): A historic DARPA competition that advanced autonomous ground vehicle technology through real-world desert races.
• Technovation Girls — Technovation: Empower your future through this global competition for grades 6-12. Build apps, solve real-world problems with AI, and gain hands-on STEM and leaders
• AI4ALL Summer Program — AI4ALL: Free AI education for underrepresented groups. Programs at Stanford, CMU, etc.
• AIcrowd Challenges — AIcrowd: Tackle real-world challenges in AI and data science through free virtual competitions for high schoolers. Boost STEM skills, enhance college apps, and
• Horizon Academic AI Essay Prize — Horizon Academic: Compete in a selective AI essay competition for high school students. Build research and writing skills, boost college applications, and explore cutti
• Inspirit AI Scholars Program — Inspirit AI: AI program taught by Stanford/MIT grad students. 10 sessions, 5:1 student-teacher ratio. Build AI projects.
• NVIDIA AI City Challenge — NVIDIA: Join a cutting-edge AI competition for high schoolers in grades 10-12. Build skills in computer vision and machine learning while boosting your colleg
• SHINE: Summer High School Intensive in Next-Generation Engineering — USC Viterbi School of Engineering: Transform your future with a summer high school research program at USC Viterbi. Gain hands-on engineering experience in AI, biomedical, and next-gen
• Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes — Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies: Three-week academic intensives across STEM, humanities, and arts.
• Carnegie Mellon AI Scholars — Carnegie Mellon University: Selective, merit-based AI program. Fully grant-funded. ~30 students work on real AI problem-solving.
• Autonomous Vehicle Challenge (SAE International) — SAE International: Competition to design and build autonomous vehicles. Tests AI, robotics, and engineering skills. Demonstrates cutting-edge STEM capabilities.
• Veritas AI x Sports Deep Dive — Veritas AI + Sports: Specialized AI program combining artificial intelligence with sports analytics for high school students.
• Veritas AI Program — Veritas AI: AI and machine learning program for high school students in grades 9-12 with project-based learning.

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