Projects shipped, papers published, alumni spotted around the city—the program, in real time.
Chicago organizations can submit a real project for a cross-university student team to scope, build, and present over ten weeks.
Submit a project →Six company projects delivered by students from four partner schools, capping ten weeks of real applied-AI work for Chicago sponsors.
Read the recap →Our paper documents how LEAD blends classroom learning with embedded work experience through real-world AI projects.
Read more →We caught up with program alumni at the RitchieBot Chicago premiere in Pilsen, where the work and relationships from LEAD continued beyond the ten-week program.
Read more →Northwestern's new AI Makerspace brings students, faculty, and industry partners together for eight- to ten-week, hands-on projects.
Read more →The year kicked off with our most competitive student applicant pool to date—more schools, more interest, more talent.
Read more →NSF and Illinois Innovation Voucher support helped LEAD build an applied-AI education model around real projects, student teams, and Chicago employers.
Read the story →Northwestern profiled program alumnus Shreyas Lele, now leading AI product work in cloud security at Palo Alto Networks.
Read the profile →Northwestern profiled program alumnus Milan McGraw's path from data science into AWS and AI/ML education.
Read the profile →A 2022 Paperspace interview captures the program's early model: multi-university teams solving real machine learning problems for Chicago companies.
Read the history →
Chicago LEAD