15 Robotics Winter Programs for High School Students
If you’re a high school student looking to learn more about robotics, consider participating in a robotics program this winter. These programs can allow you to work on projects of interest, learn about various software, and develop critical thinking and analytical skills. It also gives you the chance to learn more about future academics and opportunities in the field.
Winter programs allow you to explore your interests and add experience to your profile, outside of the classroom hours. Some are often shorter than summer programs and allow you to add experience to your profile with less time commitment. These programs are also offered by prestigious colleges and institutions, which gives you the opportunity to learn from top researchers and experts in the field and start building your network. Many of these programs are available virtually in addition to on-campus options, increasing accessibility for students from across the country.
In this blog, we’ve highlighted 15 robotics winter programs for high school students that you can explore!
1. Veritas AI
Location: Remote
Cost: Varies; Financial aid available
Dates: Multiple cohorts in a year, including winter
Application Deadline: Varies by cohort; You can apply to the program here.
Eligibility: High school students
Veritas AI, founded and run by Harvard graduate students, offers programs for high school students who are passionate about artificial intelligence. Students who are looking to get started with AI, ML, and data science would benefit from the AI Scholars program. Through this 10-session boot camp, students are introduced to the fundamentals of AI & data science and get a chance to work on real-world projects. Another option for more advanced students is the AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase. Through this program, students get a chance to work 1:1 with mentors from top universities on a unique, individual project. A bonus of this program is that students have access to the in-house publication team to help them secure publications in high school research journals.
2. MITES Semester
Location: Virtual
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: 6 months from June – December
Application Deadline: November – February 1
Eligibility: U.S. high school juniors
The MITES Semester program begins in the summer before your senior year and continues through December. It includes two phases: the STEM Immersion Phase and the College and Career Preparation Phase. During the STEM Immersion Phase, you will complete two STEM courses in areas such as robotics, machine learning, design thinking, and more. Additionally, you will participate in a team to work on a project that can be presented at the MITES Semester Conference. During the College and Career Preparation Phase, you will have opportunities to connect with researchers, professionals, and other faculty members. You will participate in community-building events, mock interviews, and essay review sessions. Additionally, you will attend workshops designed to help you prepare for college.
3. Lumiere Research Scholar Program – Robotics Science Track
Location: Remote
Cost: Varies; Financial aid available
Dates: Multiple cohorts in a year, including winter
Application Deadline: Varies by cohort
Eligibility: High school students with a GPA of 3.3/4.0
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program for high-achieving high school students. During the program, you will have the opportunity to work on an individual research paper while receiving 1:1 guidance from a PhD mentor. You’ll be able to choose research topics from a wide range of fields, including physics, robotics, science, data science, and more. At the end of the program, you’ll have the chance to present your completed paper at the Lumiere Research Symposium. You can apply here.
4. Robolabs Robotic Camps
Location: Various locations in the U.S.
Cost: Varies by length and session
Dates: Multiple sessions from November to January
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
The Robolabs Foundation offers several robotics camps that take place throughout the year. These camps are a more immersive and condensed version of their robotics classes. As a participant, you will get to develop your STEM skills and gain a head start in the world of competitive robotics. You’ll work on your own individual project and learn about robot building, programming, and testing, various mechanical principles, and so on. You’ll also learn how to work with platforms like VEX IQ, FLL, and VRC, and gain insight into robotics competitions. Along the way, you’ll get to read up on robotics literature, work on designs, and even free build.
5. UC San Diego Extended Studies – Robotics with JavaScript for High Schoolers
Location: Remote
Cost: Varies per course (pay as you go)
Dates: 3-9 months
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
Throughout this program, you will explore robotics and automation, examining the challenges of robotics programming in applications. As a participant, you will learn how to utilise JavaScript, including concepts like variables and conditionals, loops and functions, and arrays and objects, to develop programs for robot interactions. You will also gain experience programming an Arduino-compatible bot and a simulated robotic arm. Aside from this, you will also learn how to process sensor data, robot positioning, forward and reverse kinematics, 3D modelling, basic electronics, and more, all while gaining insight into programs like OpenJSCAD. This program also ensures you are aware of the implications of AI and the existing concerns about its safety.
6. Outschool Online – Intro to Robotics: Build a Robot Arm
Location: Remote
Cost: Around $70
Dates: 3 weeks; Flexible
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9-10
During this course, you will learn the fundamentals of robotics through experience with the Arduino microcontroller. As a participant, you will be provided with an Arduino & component kit and will attend classes that teach you about micro-controllers. You will learn how to create a small circuit and write simple programs. You’ll simultaneously apply what you learn to your own Arduino program and circuit. Throughout the course, you will explore the various aspects of building a robot arm while creating your own.
7. FedericaX – Robotics Foundations I: Robot Modeling
Location: Remote
Cost/Stipend: None (paid certificate)
Dates: 8 weeks; Self-paced
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
As a participant in this course, you will gain an understanding of the fundamental robotics principles involved in the modelling of robot manipulators. You will learn about the fundamentals of kinematics, differential kinematics, and statics. You’ll also learn about the various real-world scenarios that affect and influence industrial robotics and advanced robotics. The course also gives you the chance to explore other concepts like Jacobian properties, inverse kinematics algorithms, and the equations of motion of robot manipulators.
8. IBM – Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Location: Remote
Cost/Stipend: None (paid certificate)
Dates: 1 week; Self-paced
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
During the Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) course, you will explore the fundamentals of AI and its applications in various industries and domains, including robotics, natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision. You’ll also get to analyse and develop an understanding of how generative AI is transforming different business operations. Some concepts you’ll explore include machine learning, neural networks, and deep learning. This course includes hands-on labs and projects, giving you the chance to learn more about AI’s use cases and applications. By the end of the program, you will design a generative AI solution while also taking into account ethical considerations.
9. UCX – Human-Robot Interaction
Location: Remote
Cost/Stipend: None (paid certificate for $556.20)
Dates: 4 months
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
During the Human-Robot Interaction course, you will learn about the latest information and research in Human-Robot Interaction forms, including spatial, verbal, and non-verbal. You’ll also get to learn about how robots work, their range of emotions, and how to design one. The program is divided into two parts: Introduction to Human-Robot Interaction and Methods and Application in Human-Robot Interaction. You’ll spend seven weeks in the first part, learning about the basic concepts of human-robot interaction and how robots work. You’ll also get to design a human-robot interaction and explore how users can interact with robots. In the second part of the course, you will spend seven more weeks learning about the two interaction modalities between humans and robots—verbal and emotional. You will learn how to devise a study to assess the quality of interaction from both the robot's and the human's perspectives.
10. TUDelft – AI in Practice
Location: Remote
Cost/Stipend: None (paid certificate for $448.20)
Dates: 3 months
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
As a participant in this course, you will discover the benefits of implementing AI in organisations, especially in terms of research, problems, and results, and so on. You will also explore the implications of implementing AI in industry, academia, and education. The program also ensures you have the room to better understand AI compliance and ethics. It is divided into two main parts: Preparing for AI and Applying AI. The first part takes place over five weeks and explores the implications of implementing AI in organisations. The second part also goes on for five weeks and explores the more practical aspects of AI. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn how to write a plan for applying AI to an organisation.
11. University of Colorado Boulder – Introduction to Robotics with Webots Specialization
Location: Remote
Cost/Stipend: None (paid certificate)
Dates: 3 months
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
During this program, you will develop an understanding of the complex interaction between mechanisms, sensors, and control systems in the design of intelligent systems. In the first part of this course, you will read up about the robotics simulator, Webots, and develop a solid foundation in it. The goal is to build your own simulations while learning. You will explore concepts such as the forward and inverse kinematics of both holonomic and non-holonomic mechanisms, and also get to learn more about robotic sensing and actuation. By the end of the program, you will have gained practical experience in Python and will be proficient in using the realistic robotic system simulator, Webots.
12. Northwestern – Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control Specialization
Location: Remote
Cost/Stipend: None (paid certificate)
Dates: 4 months
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
This program gives you the chance to explore the most important concepts in modern robotics. It covers topics like motion planning, dynamics, kinematics, the control of mobile robots and robot arms, and more. The course provides a college-level introduction to robotics and offers an opportunity to strengthen your understanding of robotics mathematics through software development. You will also have the chance to evaluate your work by utilizing a free, advanced, cross-platform robot simulation. Some of the projects you will work on during this course include writing software for a robot arm simulator, a robot motion planner, a wheeled mobile robot, and more.
13. University of Leeds: How to Get Into Robotics
Location: Remote
Cost/Stipend: None (paid certificate)
Dates: Self-paced
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students
This is a relatively short course that gives you a glimpse into the world of robotics. During the course, you will explore some foundational aspects of robotics, like intelligent robot components. You will also be able to identify various areas of robotics applications, as well as the social, legal, and ethical challenges faced in these areas. You will get to explore how robotics combines engineering, electronics, and computer science to create innovative solutions to improve our daily lives. This includes envisioning a future with autonomous cars, medical robots, and so on. This program is a good way to learn more about robotics and decide if it's a field you’d like to explore during college.
14. Advanced AI & Robotics Program: Self-Paced Learning
Location: Remote
Cost: Up to $999
Dates: September – May; Self-paced
Application Deadline: Not mentioned
Eligibility: High school students with a basic knowledge of coding
During this program, you will have the chance to build AI-enabled robots. It’s open to students in elementary school to high school; you will receive a robotics kit and will have full access to the online curriculum. As a high school student, you will get to build an AI-enabled quadruped robot dog as part of a three-part course. In the first part, you will focus on building the robot from scratch and will learn concepts like motion control, kinematics, programming, and more. In the second part, you will learn how to make it AI-enabled, WiFi-connected, and in the third part, you will participate in an advanced robotics lab where you will learn programming, AI, and deep learning techniques. Once you finish the program, you will receive a Robotics Specialist Predegree and certification for everything you learned.
15. Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)
Location: Various DoN labs across the U.S.
Stipend: $4,000 – $4,500
Dates: Varies by lab (year-round + summer)
Application Deadline: August 1 – November 1
Eligibility: U.S. rising 10th graders to graduating 12th graders (16+)
As part of the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program, you will be placed in various Department of the Navy (DoN) laboratories across the U.S. During this time, you will get to participate in real and relevant Naval research for around eight weeks. You will work alongside top scientists and engineers, participating in meaningful STEM research while receiving mentorship and guidance. This is a competitive program that typically places around 300 students a year. While it is primarily a summer program, some labs offer apprenticeships that extend into winter or are year-round.
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