Learn. Design. Build. Innovate.

Students don't simply complete projects—they learn how to become innovation leaders capable of identifying meaningful problems, working collaboratively, managing complex projects, building prototypes, learning from failure, and transforming ideas into solutions.

Students work as emerging researchers and engineers, using the AE4 Innovation Learning Cycle to investigate problems affecting human health and mobility and develop prototype solutions.

Projects can become the foundation for advanced STEM+C Research experiences, university mentorships, research presentations, and multi-year Innovation Scholar pathways.

Students progress from learning foundational CAD skills to designing components and systems that address authentic problems. CAD becomes more than a software skill—it becomes a language for innovation, allowing students to communicate, test, refine, and manufacture their ideas.

Students learn that effective AI begins with more than an algorithm—it begins with understanding the problem, the user, and the data.

Using the AE4 Innovation Learning Cycle, students identify meaningful applications for AI, build and evaluate solutions, and examine both the possibilities and responsibilities associated with intelligent technologies.

Students begin by understanding the needs of patients, therapists, and other stakeholders. They then design and develop immersive prototypes intended to address specific rehabilitation challenges.

Depending on the project, students may collaborate with healthcare professionals, researchers, engineers, or university partners to evaluate their concepts and improve their designs.

The result is a powerful interdisciplinary experience connecting computer science, healthcare, engineering, research, and empathy.

Students explore how researchers and engineers translate biological signals into meaningful data. Through hands-on investigations, they learn to collect, visualize, analyze, and interpret physiological and neural signals while examining how these signals might be incorporated into interactive technologies.

Using the AE4 Innovation Learning Cycle, students can progress from investigating a neuroscience-related problem to designing experiments, collecting data, developing prototypes, and evaluating potential applications.

Projects may explore areas such as BCI-controlled devices, assistive technologies, rehabilitation, human performance, neural signal analysis, accessibility, and human-machine interaction.

As students advance, BCI & Neuroscience projects can incorporate AI and machine learning to investigate patterns within biological data and explore how intelligent systems can interpret human physiological signals.

BCI & Neuroscience is designed to provide a bridge between K–12 STEM education and authentic university-level research.

Advanced students may develop projects suitable for continued investigation through the AE4 Innovation Scholar Program, university mentorship, research experiences, poster presentations, and interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in neuroscience, engineering, healthcare, and computer science.

The course provides students with an early opportunity to experience what it means to think and work like a neuroscientist, engineer, and technology innovator.

Students begin by investigating the chemistry behind a familiar product: soap. They examine how the molecular properties of different fats, oils, bases, and additives influence the characteristics of a finished product.

Students then apply chemistry through laboratory investigations and controlled formulation experiments. They learn to manipulate variables, document procedures, collect data, compare formulations, and use evidence to improve their products.

Instead of asking only, “How do you make soap?”, AE4 students are challenged to ask: Why does this chemical reaction work? How does changing the chemistry change the product? How can we design a better product for a particular user or need?

The course can also serve as an early introduction to concepts students may encounter in chemical engineering, materials science, cosmetic science, pharmaceutical science, and product development.

Students begin to see how chemists and engineers move from laboratory chemistry to scalable products by considering formulation, process control, consistency, quality, cost, safety, sustainability, and manufacturing.

Saponification also provides a natural connection between STEM and entrepreneurship.

Students can use their chemistry knowledge to develop an original product concept, identify a target customer, experiment with formulations, calculate production costs, design packaging, develop a brand, and construct a business model.

Chemistry → Experimentation → Formulation → Product Development → Validation → Entrepreneurship

Students learn that chemistry is not simply something studied in a laboratory—it can become the foundation for creating products, solving problems, launching ventures, and pursuing careers in science and engineering.