Beaver Works Summer Institute

The MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) is a rigorous, world-class STEM program for talented students who will be entering their senior year in high school. The four-week program teaches STEM skills through project-based, workshop-style courses. BWSI began in 2016 with a single course offered to 46 students, a mix of local daytime students and out-of-state residential students. In this course, RACECAR (Rapid Autonomous Complex Environment Competing Ackermann steering) students programmed small robotic cars to autonomously navigate a racetrack.

The positive student reaction to our hands-on learning style led to the expansion of the program to include two additional courses in 2017, Autonomous Air Vehicle Racing and Autonomous Cognitive Assistant. To make sure students had the STEM background to participate fully in the three courses, the BWSI instructors developed online tutorials that students had to complete as a prerequisite for applying for the summer program.  In 2017, 98 students from 49 high schools nationwide enjoyed BWSI.

We have continued to grow both in the number of courses that we offer as well as the number of students that we support in their learning. Now, we have 13 courses from autonomous vehicles to quantum software!  We helped over 350 students learn these technologies this year!  We hope to see you at one of our programs soon!

Check our website for updates on all our programs and events.