Four Gilmour Students Selected for Prestigious Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamp

Four Gilmour students recently completed the prestigious Mark Cuban Foundation Artificial Intelligence Bootcamp, hosted in partnership with Sherwin-Williams and College Now. The program brought together high school students from across Cleveland for four intensive Saturdays of hands-on AI exploration, real-world problem-solving and mentorship from industry professionals.

Gilmour’s representatives included Daniel ’29 and Rachel ’29 Aderibigbe, Delaney Kilkenney ’27 and Duncan Nakhooda ’28, a strong showing among the roughly 20 students chosen from schools across the region.

Bootcamp sessions were held on four Saturdays – October 25, November 1, 8 and 15 – from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The curriculum introduced students to emerging AI tools — such as generative AI and predictive modeling — and challenged them to apply these technologies to real-world issues in fields such as medicine, sports science, business, the arts and computer science.

Why Students Applied

For many participants, the bootcamp offered a rare chance to explore cutting-edge technology in a meaningful and hands-on way. “AI is the future, and everyone will need to know how to use it,” said Rachel, whose interests in robotics and medicine made the program especially appealing.

Students collaborated on capstone projects designed to address real community needs, including a healthcare-focused app aimed at helping track the progression of ALS and MS and a tool for psychiatrists that records patient video and audio, detects potential signs of depression, anxiety or suicide risk, and recommends next steps.

Duncan described the experience as both challenging and inspiring: “We spent countless hours researching, finding data sets, and training our AI bot, which we then implemented into a functional app.” 

Participants not only strengthened their technical understanding of AI, but also developed problem-solving, teamwork and ethical decision-making skills.

Daniel found the program transformative in understanding how AI can be applied effectively: “AI is a very important tool that can make your work more efficient, and I wanted to learn how to use it in the smartest way possible.”

The students left the Boot Camp energized by the future possibilities in AI. They plan to continue building projects, exploring AI tools, or integrating what they learned into career aspirations ranging from software development to medicine and entrepreneurship.