By Grace Stanley
Cornell Tech will introduce its first Summer Innovation Intensives program in July 2026, offering high school juniors, seniors, and recent graduates an immersive experience in artificial intelligence, ethics, and entrepreneurship. The three-week program, scheduled for July 13-30 on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus, is designed to give students a head start on college-level learning while tackling real-world challenges through technology.
Participants will earn college credit and work alongside Cornell Tech faculty and mentors to design AI-powered solutions with an emphasis on creativity and responsible innovation. The program is designed to be accessible — no prior coding experience is required — making it ideal for curious minds eager to explore how emerging technologies influence society.
For their morning studies, students will choose from three academic tracks: “Engineering Operations,” which explores algorithms behind machine learning and AI systems; “Interacting with AI,” which examines how AI influences human behavior and communication; and “Ethical Vibe Coding,” which focuses on building applications with AI that prioritize human values and fairness.
Afternoons will focus on the “Future Builders Studio,” a collaborative environment where students apply what they learn to create innovative projects and pitch their ideas at a final showcase.
Mor Naaman, an expert on technology, media, and democracy whose research explores how AI-mediated communication impacts society, will supervise the development of one of the program’s courses, “Interacting with AI.”
“We want students to experience what it means to build technology thoughtfully — not just how to code, but how to consider its impact on people and society,” said Naaman, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and the Don and Mibs Follett Professor at Cornell Tech, the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, and the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.
Other faculty who will help design the program include associate professor Wendy Ju, a pioneer in human-robot interaction and automated systems design, and assistant professor Angelique Taylor, director of Cornell Tech’s Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Lab, who specializes in building intelligent systems for safety-critical environments, like emergency rooms. Both Ju and Taylor served as advisors to help develop the “Ethical Vibe Coding” course.
In the “Engineering Operations” course, participants will have the opportunity to learn directly from assistant professor Omar El Housni, who is stepping into the classroom to share his expertise in data science, algorithmic decision-making, and optimization in the world of AI.
In “Future Builders Studio,” students will engage in innovation sessions with professor Karan Girotra, a leading scholar on AI-driven business transformation, and Josh Hartmann, Cornell Tech’s Chief Practice Officer. Girotra and Hartmann will guide students in entrepreneurship and product development through the program’s studio-based approach.
Together, these mentors will provide hands-on instruction and personalized guidance, helping students think critically about innovation, AI, and its human impact.
The program reflects Cornell Tech’s mission to develop leaders and technologies for the AI era through research, education, and entrepreneurship. Since opening in 2012, Cornell Tech has launched 10 degree programs and spun out nearly 130 companies, 95 percent of which are based in New York City, contributing to the region’s growing tech sector.
Grace Stanley is the staff writer-editor for Cornell Tech.
