Design Thinking
Students interview users and investigate the problem before deciding what to build. They use those findings to design technology around real user needs.
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Turn Ideas Into AI-Powered Apps
Students identify a real problem and build a working solution: an AI-powered mobile app, website, or video game. Every project is developed to launch, with support through App Store submission, patent-pending filing, and competition preparation.
Open to high school students worldwide.
Program Overview
What students build, how the program works, and who can apply.
What You'll Build
An AI-powered mobile app, web app, or product that solves a real-world problem. Your app will launch in the app store with guaranteed publication.
Program duration
- School-year cohorts: 3 months (Standard) or 5 months (Premium)
- Summer cohorts: 2 months (Standard) or 3 months (Premium)
Time Commitment
2-4 hours per week (including live group sessions)
Who Can Apply
High school students worldwide (grades 9-12). No coding experience required.
What You Need
- Interest in building apps or solving problems with technology
- Computer with internet access
- Commitment to attend weekly sessions
What Can You Build?
With instructor support, students build products around problems they care about. Past projects address health, education, financial access, law, sustainability, and more. A few examples:
- Social good: A financial literacy app helping women experiencing homelessness build economic stability before a crisis hits
- Healthcare: An early screening tool that helps teenagers identify signs of anxiety and connect with school-based mental health resources
- Law: A voter registration assistant that guides first-time voters through eligibility requirements, deadlines, and polling logistics in plain language
- Sustainability: A household carbon tracking app that translates everyday purchasing decisions into measurable environmental impact
Have a strong technical background?
The program meets you where you are. Students with computer science experience have used it to go further. They train and fine-tune their own models and work on problems that require genuine technical depth. Your mentor will work at the level your project demands.
- A music generation model fine-tuned on a specific genre or artist style, with a web interface for users to generate original tracks.
- A sentiment analysis tool that tracks public opinion shifts around a specific policy issue using Twitter or Reddit data
- An image classification model trained to identify plant diseases from photos, using openly available agricultural datasets.
Student Projects Showcase
Explore the apps and projects students have built with their mentors.
Personal AI Tutor for Students
An AI-driven tutoring app that provides personalized learning support for students. It uses NLP to break down complex subjects, offer step-by-step explanations, and create customized study plans based on student performance. The app includes speech-to-text and text-to-speech features for accessibility and a progress dashboard to track learning milestones. Students can also connect with volunteer mentors and peers for collaborative learning.
Environmental Impact Analyzer
Encourages users to make eco-friendly choices by scanning product barcodes to analyze carbon footprint, recyclability, and ethical sourcing. Using AI and machine learning, it suggests sustainable product alternatives, tracks carbon emissions, and provides real-time sustainability tips. Users can scan receipts and bills to monitor consumption patterns. The app promotes environmental awareness through personalized challenges to reduce waste and emissions.
Women’s AI Health
Companion
Companion
An AI-powered women’s health app that combines menstrual and mental health tracking with personalized care recommendations. It uses a generative AI assistant to provide cycle- and mood-based tips, and a smart provider match engine to connect users with nearby healthcare services based on symptoms, insurance, and availability. The app includes an integrated calendar that syncs cycle data, check-ins, and appointments into one visual timeline, helping women manage both physical and emotional health.
Nova mentors are from top 25 universities
You deserve world-class support to reach your full potential. That’s why every Nova mentor is a graduate candidate, professor, or alumnus of a top 25 university, including Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. We want high school students to create meaningful work that showcases their best selves.
Why Nova Product Launch Is Different
Design thinking, project outcomes, and the mentors behind the program.
Real Outcomes
Every student finishes with a live app or AI-powered project they can proudly showcase in portfolios, college applications, and beyond.
World-Class Mentors
Learn directly from experts who’ve built products at Meta, Google, and NVIDIA, and taught design thinking at top universities.
Stanford-Inspired Approach
Former Stanford DESIGN 161: Advanced Product Design instructors adapted the course curriculum for high school students.
Choose Your Track
Choose the track that fits your project goals and the support you need. Program tuition starts at $2,900 USD, depending on the track and duration.
Standard
10 Sessions (20 Hours)
3 months during the school year, or 2 months in the summer. You will leave with a working AI-powered product you built and launched to the App Store.
Choose Standard if you:
Are new to product development and want a structured introduction to the process
Want to design and build a working AI-powered app, website, or video game
Premium
10 Sessions (20 Hours) + 10 Hours of 1:1 Mentorship
5 months during the school year, or 3 months in the summer. The 1:1 time is focused on deeper development, patent writing, and competition preparation.
Choose Premium if you:
Want to file for patent-pending status on your product
Plan to enter a technology or entrepreneurship competition
Want your project to serve as a signature component of your college application
Want more time to build, refine, and take your idea further
App Store submission is included in both tracks. Patent-pending filing and competition preparation are Premium only and are not available as standalone add-ons.
Your Journey to Launch
From matching with a cohort to building, launching, and refining your app.
01Apply & Match
02Problem Discovery
03Solution Design
04Product Development
05App Store Launch
06Refine and Improve
07Patent Submission
08Competition Prep
The Nova Product Launch Guarantee
Nova Scholar Patent Pathway
The Product Launch program includes Patent Pathway, a selective track that pairs students with intellectual property specialists to explore patent protection.
What’s Included:
- Expert Guidance → Up to 3 sessions with patent professionals experienced in youth innovation and early-stage IP.
- Hands-On Support → Step-by-step help drafting and preparing provisional or design patent applications.
- Prestige Credential → Guaranteed “Patent Pending” status, a unique distinction that strengthens college applications, competitions, and portfolios.
Cohort & Application Information
Cohorts share a start date, but individual sessions are scheduled around your availability. Sessions can be rescheduled with at least 48 hours’ notice to accommodate AP exams, finals, competitions, or other conflicts. Choose an upcoming cohort when you apply. We typically offer five start dates each year. Applications received after the regular deadline are treated as late enrollment, with mentor matching completed within one to three weeks. Late-enrollment pricing applies regardless of when you join during the cycle.
Turn your idea into an app, and share it with the world
Design, build, and launch an AI-powered app with one-on-one mentor support.
