Programmes

Young founders launch AI businesses in a week at ETH Zurich

The Department of Computer Science partnered with Hebbian to host AI Week 2026 for high school students. There were 65 participants from 23 countries who formed teams and shipped a working product using AI. The workshop concluded with a pitch in front of family, friends, and an expert jury from ETH, Google, and private equity.

3 to 7 August 2026 at ETH Zurich

AI Week brings high school students to ETH Zurich for five days to build foundational entrepreneurship and AI skills. Participants brainstorm ideas and then team up to design, build, and ship a live site or app by the end of the week. During this time they learn to use modern AI tools to identify a market, write code, design an interface, and test their working product with real users.

In their own words

Three of the teams talk about what they built and what the week was like.

The Mappr team on their indoor navigation tool, which gives every room, lift and stairwell in a building its own address and draws verified step free routes with walking times.
The Briefable team on their phone app, which reads scanned letters, explains them in plain English, finds the hidden deadlines in tax notices, insurance renewals and bills, and puts them in your calendar.
The Tio team on their AI travel assistant, which turns one line about who you are and what you need into a personalised day by day itinerary, down to details like dietary restrictions at every dinner.

What the students said

The students were asked what they enjoyed most about the week. Here are a few of them.

What I liked most about the week was learning about AI from very kind instructors who always made everything easy to understand. I enjoyed working with students from other countries and discovering how technology can be used creatively.

Andreea T., 15, Recyclab

I like the fact that I got to know so many people from across the world and it was actually fun to build your own project because it is something that is actually in my own interest and not something I have to do for homework.

Moritz E., 16, Tio

I liked how much I learned while having a blast. I met new people with whom I collaborated incredibly well.

Gabriela B., 17, Briefable

They rated the programme highly. Asked how likely they would be to recommend AI Week to a friend, students answered greater than 9 out of 10 on average.