YAS Youth AI Startup Pitch Competition

NextGen AI supports the YAS Youth AI Startup Pitch Competition, a youth AI startup pitch event connected with Toronto Tech Week. The event invites students ages 12-22 to participate individually or in teams and present a 3-minute AI startup idea.

• Teams can prepare an AI product idea, social-impact concept, research-to-market idea, or prototype demo.
• Mentors help students sharpen the problem, solution, AI role, audience, and next steps.
• Participants practice concise speaking, slide pacing, and answering judge questions.
• The event creates a friendly entry point for students interested in AI, entrepreneurship, and community innovation.

Startup Canada Tour Support

NextGen AI supports youth who want to connect AI ideas with entrepreneurship opportunities through the Startup Canada Tour. The Mississauga stop brings entrepreneurs, mentors, ecosystem partners, and pitch opportunities together in one national startup community event.

• Youth teams receive support connecting AI ideas to a clear problem, audience, and value proposition.
• Mentors help students practice short pitch explanations and prepare questions for entrepreneurship advisors.
• The support focuses on responsible AI, realistic prototypes, and communicating technical ideas clearly.
• Students are encouraged to use the tour as a bridge into Canada's broader startup ecosystem.

Youth AI Foundations Workshop

A practical beginner workshop for students who were curious about AI but had not yet built a project. The session connected everyday AI examples with simple prompt experiments and a guided mini-prototype activity.

• Students compared rule-based systems, machine learning, and generative AI using familiar examples.
• Mentors demonstrated how prompts can be tested, revised, and checked instead of accepted blindly.
• Small groups sketched project ideas for study planning, accessibility, creative writing, and school club support.
• The final discussion focused on privacy, source checking, and when a human should make the decision.

Youth AI Literacy Webinar

An online AI literacy session for youth and families during winter break. The webinar introduced core AI concepts, showed safe ways to use generative tools, and gave students a roadmap for deeper exploration.

• The opening segment explained AI, machine learning, and generative AI in student-friendly language.
• The demo showed how a chatbot can help brainstorm, but also why answers need verification.
• Students asked questions about schoolwork, coding, image generation, privacy, and future careers.
• Participants received a starter pathway covering AI literacy, Python, mathematics, and project practice.

VEX Robotics Competition Support

NextGen AI supported a youth VEX robotics competition by helping students think through debugging, sensor data, automation logic, and how robotics connects to broader AI practice.

• Volunteers helped students break problems into sensors, control logic, mechanical reliability, and driver strategy.
• Students discussed how robot data can support better testing, iteration, and decision-making.
• The support table shared beginner AI resources for robotics teams interested in computer vision and automation.
• Parents and coaches connected with NextGen AI about future workshops for robotics clubs.

Youth AI Project Showcase

The March showcase brought students, mentors, and families together to share small but complete AI projects. The goal was not perfection; it was helping students explain a problem, a model or tool, the limitations, and what they would improve next.

• Projects included study chatbots, AI-assisted writing planners, simple image classifiers, and data visualizations.
• Mentors asked students to explain their data, assumptions, privacy choices, and model limitations.
• Families saw how AI projects can combine math, coding, communication, and responsible decision-making.
• The event closed with next-step recommendations for portfolios, competitions, and summer projects.