OXIE's Youth Innovation Events
From live innovation days at world-leading venues to national competitions, OXIE events put young people at the centre of the most important conversations of our time.
OXIE Youth Innovation Events bring together young people, educators, technologists, and innovators for experiences that go beyond the classroom. Each event is built around a real challenge, a real product, or a real idea — and every young person who attends leaves having contributed something that matters.
UPCOMING EVENT
The Dawn of AI: Edinburgh, 19th June 2026, 1-4pm
Join us at the National Robotarium for an afternoon of AI innovation, hands-on workshops, and a live author talk with Bryanna Bone. Every ticket includes exclusive access to the beta reader programme for The Dawn of AI — read the chapters before the book is published and vote on the ending.
— AI innovation workshops
— Live author talk
— Beta reader portal access
— Vote on the published ending in person
Ticket price: £20 · Ages 11–18
Buttons: Book Tickets → (Eventbrite link) · Register as Beta Reader → (thedawnofai.org/betatest)
PAST EVENTS
SWINDON: AI & YOUNG PEOPLE
OXIE joined up with DiversITy Talent to provide a specially curated Design Thinking Programme where 80 college students at New College created innovative solutions to problems they personally face with AI, using Vercel's v0. The most urgent problems they claim to face are:
1. Loss of Critical Thinking
2. Deepfakes & Misinformation online
3. Academic Integrity & Distrust
4. Pollution from Data Centres
5. Emotional Dependence on Chatbots
Four students won a "CyberFirst Student Leader Award" from their final projects.
SMARTSTEMS Event at Oxford University
OXIE joined up with SmartStems to deliver a special day of Engineering to 80 Year 6 Students visiting Trinity College at the University of Oxford. Our Founder, Bryanna Bone, provided AI Literacy workshops and showcased how voice cloning technology can be used in beneficial and dangerous ways. Students then got to try out a video game created with v0 by a beta reader for The Dawn of AI.
National Debate Speech & Poetry Competition
Future voices
Our flagship programme, Critical Minds: AI, culminates in a final project (a speech or poem) that can be submitted to our Future Voices competition.
National Speech Competition
Our flagship program, Critical Minds: AI, is a 6-week self-led online course designed to help students aged 11–18 explore the impact of artificial intelligence on their future.
It teaches them to question deeply, think ethically, and use creativity to help make sense of the post-AI world.
The programme its curated around the reading of the upcoming YA Novel, The Dawn of AI.
Their final project—a speech or a poem—can then be submitted to the Future Voices Competition, giving young people the opportunity to share their ideas with a national audience and influence real conversations about the future.
Empowering the next generation of
Thinkers Leaders Innovators World Changers
Critical Minds: AI Programme
Final project outline
For the final project of our Critical Minds Program, you will write and perform either a Debate Speech or a Poem about the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI governance.
Outstanding entries will be submitted to the Future Voices: National AI Debate & Poetry Competition, where winners will attend an event and deliver their speeches in front of real decision-makers.
Project Goals
- Research and choose an AI topic that inspires or concerns you.
- Develop a clear argument or message using evidence and creativity.
- Use emotion, logic, and imagination to persuade or move your audience.
Topic Ideas
- Young People: Should schools be required to teach about AI? Should children use AI chatbots?
- Healthcare: Should doctors and hospitals be required to use AI, given its benefits?
- Work & Economy: How should governments and schools adapt to joblessness?
- Climate Action: Is AI good for the planet or bad for the planet?
- Governance: Should AI companies be more regulated by the government?
- Information & Media: Should deepfakes be illegal? Should AI generated content be always labelled?
- ASI: Should ASI be created or should it be outlawed? Should creating it be paused? Until when?
- Post-humanism: Should we transfer minds into machines or put chips into brains?
Debate Speech focus
○ Convince an audience that your vision for AI is the right one.
○ State your stance clearly (for or against).
○ Use facts, examples, and rhetorical devices to persuade.
○ End with a strong call to action — what should we do next?
poetry focus
○ Make the audience feel the power, promise, danger, and nuance around the future of AI.
○ Use imagery and emotion to show what AI means to you.
○ Experiment with rhythm, structure, and voice.
○ End with a message or emotional impact.
