As the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute (ASPI) expands Syracuse University’s course offerings on autonomous systems and AI, it is also providing a new opportunity to the field for local teens. This summer, 15 New York high school students will converge on the Syracuse campus for the Autonomous Racecar Grand Prix—working in teams to build, program and race small remote-controlled vehicles on a challenge course. Along the way they’ll be coding navigation programs in Python and learning to use advanced sensors to detect objects and maneuver around obstacles.

The rigorous four-week program is the first offering from Orange Works, sponsored by ASPI and supported by the faculty and graduate students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The program leverages MIT’s Beaver Works Summer Institute course curriculum.

“Orange Works is a powerful vehicle to transform the local educational landscape by providing opportunities previously unavailable to students,” says Anthony Terrinoni, director of Orange Works and managing director of ASPI.

The Autonomous Racecar Grand Prix is just the beginning of a slate of planned courses. Next year, Orange Works will add summer programs including autonomous underwater vehicles and data science for health and medicine—all providing New York teenagers with hands-on introductions to these frontiers of technology.

By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers