Hawaiʻi is doing something worth paying attention to: actually preparing students for the world they're about to enter.
In Hawaiʻi, students are using design thinking + AI to identify real problems, build real prototypes, test them with users, and iterate.
This is not a theory. This is not "learning about AI." This is students becoming builders.
While many schools are still figuring out how to approach AI in the classroom, these students are already ahead—learning to understand and apply AI tools through core Computer Science concepts to create, problem-solve, and grow.
That is the future.
The question for every school system isn't whether students will encounter AI; they already are. It's whether we give them the skills, confidence, and creativity to shape it.
Hawaiʻi is answering that question with a yes.
The Design Intelligence Lab (DIL) is a collaborative youth talent development initiative designed to inspire Hawaiʻi's next generation of innovators. By integrating Design Thinking and AI, the program equips students with foundational Computer Science knowledge to understand how AI tools work and apply them to solve real-world Indo-Pacific challenges.
Watch Hawai'i News Now's interview with the winning team from Aliamanu Middle School and see what they built for this Design Thinking + AI challenge. The most successful projects showed a rigorous commitment to user-centric design.
The apps for this competition were built with the Lovable x imagi K12 platform, which is safe and curriculum-aligned.
