SUNY Poly and Whitesboro District Win NSF Planning Grant to Co-Design Hosted AI and CS Learning Platform for Secondary Schools

SUNY Polytechnic Institute is partnering with educators from the Whitesboro Central School District on a National Science Foundation-funded project to improve access to artificial intelligence and computer science education for high school students. The SUNY Poly-led team received a $50,000 NSF Finders Foundry Planning Grant for the project, 'Co-Designing a Scalable Hosted Learning Platform for Secondary AI and Computer Science Education.' The team is part of the program's inaugural cohort of 50 interdisciplinary teams nationwide. The project is led by SUNY Poly Lecturer in Computer Science Derek Taylor and Director of Pre-Collegiate Outreach John Reade, working with Whitesboro High School educators Michael Eramo and Sean Ryan. During the planning phase, the team will gather input from students, educators, parents and guardians, school stakeholders, and technical contributors to inform platform requirements, interface wireframes, and feasibility analysis.

This is a federally funded planning project for secondary AI education infrastructure, directly targeting the technical support, IT environment, and fragmented tool barriers schools face when expanding AI and computer science education. If it advances, it could shape a replicable hosted learning platform model affecting district procurement and teaching practices. However, it is currently only in the planning phase; the $50,000 grant funds needs gathering and feasibility analysis, and no platform has been built or piloted, so actual outcomes remain to be verified. It outlines a planning path for a hosted learning platform for secondary AI and computer science education that could lower technical support and IT environment barriers for schools. The project is in the planning phase and has not produced a usable platform or teaching outcome data; it must compete for a future NSF Development award to enter building and piloting.