Vera Cubero Guest Post: These Students Aren't Waiting for the Future — They're Building It
Inside the First NC AI Solve-A-Thon, Where North Carolina Students Tackled Real Problems with Real Solutions
He urged his fellow students to stop thinking of themselves as kids waiting for permission and to start thinking of themselves as founders, engineers, designers, and problem-solvers who happen to still be in high school.
By Vera Cubero
I have spent years working in education, thinking about what it means to truly prepare students for the world ahead. I have led conversations about AI in classrooms, spoken at conferences, and helped educators reimagine what learning can look like. But on February 11, 2026, in Greensboro, North Carolina, a group of students showed me something I won’t soon forget.
The first-ever NC AI Solve-A-Thon, hosted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, brought together ten finalist teams from across the state — middle and high school students who had spent months identifying real problems in their own communities and designing AI-enabled solutions to address them. This was not a science fair. It was not a coding competition. It was something different entirely, and I believe it offers a glimpse of what education can become.
More Than a Competition
Let me be clear about what this event was not. Students were not asked to write essays about artificial intelligence. They were not given a prompt and told to produce a polished product on command. They were not completing an assignment.
Instead, they were asked a deceptively simple question: What problem matters to you, and how can AI help you solve it?
What followed was months of work — research, prototyping, testing, iterating, failing, adjusting, and trying again. By the time they arrived in Greensboro, each team had built something real. And on stage, they had five minutes to present their solution to a live audience and a panel of judges.
Every single team delivered. The range of problems they tackled was remarkable. One team developed AI-powered tools to help people experiencing homelessness find resources. Another created an app to make navigating the North Carolina DMV less painful. A middle school team from Brevard used ChatGPT and Google Earth mapping to address habitat fragmentation threatening their town’s iconic white squirrel population. Others focused on healthcare access, ASL translation, construction site safety, improving teen mental help and more.
These were not hypothetical exercises. These were students who looked at their own neighborhoods, their own families, their own daily experiences — and decided to do something about what they saw.
A Keynote That Set the Tone
Before the competition began, seventeen-year-old Arnav Chauhan took the stage to deliver the keynote address. Arnav is a North Carolina high school student who has already founded two companies and was recently hired as an executive at a third — all before graduating.
But what struck me was not his resume. It was his message. He urged his fellow students to stop thinking of themselves as kids waiting for permission and to start thinking of themselves as founders, engineers, designers, and problem-solvers who happen to still be in high school. He spoke about standing on the shoulders of giants, and then he turned that idea forward: in five years, he told them, you will be the giants whose shoulders others stand on.
It was exactly the right message for the room. And watching the teams present afterward, it was clear they had already internalized it.
The Winning Teams
Every team that competed in Greensboro deserved recognition, and I mean that without reservation. Choosing winners was genuinely difficult. But three teams rose to the top.
First place went to Future Minds from Cabarrus County Schools. This team, from Cox Mill High School and coached by Nina Darnell, built the NC Connect Link App — a tool designed to connect North Carolinians in need with resources for food, housing, and healthcare. Their focus was especially on rural and low-income communities where finding help can be the hardest. The judges were struck by both the thoughtfulness of their research and the usability of what they built.
Second place went to the Pine Lakers from Pine Lake Preparatory School, coached by Coral Riley. Their solution tackled a problem nearly every North Carolinian has experienced: the frustration of dealing with the DMV. They built an app to help drivers navigate the process more efficiently, saving time and reducing confusion.
Third place went to the Byrd Brains from Cumberland County Schools, coached by Stefany VanScyoc. Their project, called the Jade Book, was a website and app designed to connect people struggling with homelessness to the resources available to them. It was a project rooted in empathy and built with care.
Thanks to Amazon for providing the gift cards for the winning teams through our partners at Playlab.
What connects all three winning projects is worth noting. None of them were about technology for its own sake. Each one started with people — with understanding who is struggling, why, and what barriers stand between them and help. AI was the tool. Compassion was the engine.
What the Judges Saw
Antoinette Melvin, a lifelong education professional who served as a judge, captured the experience well. She described seeing students who were not simply showcasing ideas but demonstrating real research skills, coding ability, thoughtful design choices, and confident public speaking. Their professionalism showed up everywhere — on stage, in the Expo Hall, and even in brief hallway conversations.
That professionalism was not rehearsed polish. It was the kind of confidence that comes from having done serious work and knowing you can stand behind it.
Another judge, Alex Horowitz of AI for Equity, reflected that “these students and their teachers are preparing in real time for a world where AI literacy is essential. It is not just about understanding how AI works. It is about building with it. And every student deserves that opportunity. When you pair the power of AI with young people’s instinct toward the greater good, the results are powerful. There is no shortage of alarming headlines about AI. But in the hands of thoughtful, community-minded students, this technology can become a force for tangible good.”
What This Means for Education
I have been saying for a long time that students are capable of more than we sometimes design for. The Solve-A-Thon proved it in a way that no position paper or conference keynote ever could.
When we stop giving students watered-down tasks and start giving them meaningful challenges, they rise. When we position AI as a tool for amplification rather than substitution — when students use it to extend their thinking rather than replace it — something powerful happens. They don’t just learn about technology. They learn about themselves, about their communities, and about what it means to take ownership of a problem and see it through.
The ten teams that competed in Greensboro — from Triangle Math and Science Academy, Pine Lake Preparatory, Cumberland County Schools, Cabarrus County Schools, Brevard Academy, and Davidson County Schools — represent something bigger than one event. They represent a proof of concept for a different kind of education. One that is rooted in real problems, driven by student agency, and amplified by the tools of our time.
These students are not waiting for the future to happen to them. They are building it. And as educators, our job is to give them the space, the trust, and the tools to keep going.
The future is bright. I saw it in Greensboro.
Vera Cubero is an AI in Education leader recognized among the 2025 Top 100 Leading Women in AI by ASU/GSV. She works to empower student-centered transformation and envision the future of education with AI through the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.