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Response to request for information (RFI)

Mobilizing Talent for the Genesis Mission and Developing an American Workforce to Advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Science and Engineering RFI Number: DE-SC-26-016 | Response Due: March 4, 2026

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Summary

The Genesis Mission’s focus on undergraduate and graduate dual competency programs is the right place to formalize training. But if DOE wants to reliably reach scale, it should also consider where that pipeline begins. My recommendation is to begin the talent pipeline in middle school by creating a national, optional enrichment layer that identifies high-agency students early, gives them structured direction, and delivers them to dual competency undergraduate programs already prepared. This response speaks directly to RFI Questions 3, 11, and 12 – what attracts students to dual competency programs, what experiential opportunities best prepare them, and how a program of this kind scales nationally. I propose a framework with five components:
  • A free, curated Genesis Learning Platform for middle and high school students, built in partnership with DOE, national laboratories, universities, and industry. This platform would provide structured curriculum paths in AI and science/engineering, with verified badges and a linked project portfolio.
  • An industry challenge and project layer modeled on Kaggle-style competitions, where students work on real problems without exploitation of student labor and with student intellectual property protected.
  • A remote advisor network to provide guidance, accountability, and awareness to students without adequate STEM exposure. Advisors would match with students demonstrating aptitude and help them pursue an individualized AI and science/engineering development plan.
  • Equipment, software, and compute access treated as educational infrastructure. DOE can build on existing district device distribution models and negotiate a compute tier that extends existing student credit programs to younger learners.
  • Community-based programs that complement online learning, including ROTC-style cohorts and immersive summer programs hosted at DOE National Laboratories or university campuses.
The outcome is a strong, merit-based pipeline: students nationwide, independent of location, arriving at dual competency undergraduate programs with foundational knowledge, a verified skills record, a portfolio of work, and real-world collaboration experience.

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A note on my perspective

This response comes from an individual citizen – not a representative of a university, national laboratory, or corporation. I recognize I am not a typical respondent, but the perspective offered here is firsthand: I was the type of student the Genesis Mission wants to develop. I graduated high school at sixteen as a junior – not through a formal accelerated program, but through my own initiative. I enrolled in correspondence courses through Texas Tech University, arranged my own materials, and sat proctored exams without teacher or parental assistance. I was high-agency, self-directed, and genuinely curious. I went on to earn a Computer Science degree and to build a career in tech. But when I arrived at college, my classmates ran circles around me when it came to programing – not because they were smarter, but because they had been coding since they were twelve. They had discovered this world early. I had not. By the time I found my way in, I was spending enormous energy closing a gap that should never have existed. Intellectually curious and high-agency students are capable of far more than the standard K–12 track offers them. They need a pathway into what the Genesis Mission seeks. My response speaks directly to Executive Order 14277, Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth, and its call for a framework integrating early student exposure across all learning pathways – from K–12 through postsecondary.

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My recommendation: begin the pipeline in middle school

The Genesis Mission’s focus on undergraduate and graduate pipelines is the right place to formalize training. I would encourage DOE to consider where that pipeline begins. The students most likely to thrive in dual competency AI and science/engineering programs are entering middle school right now, dispersed throughout the country – in small towns in rural Appalachia, in mid-size Midwest cities, in suburbs across every region of the country. The adults in their lives may not be fully aware of the state and future impact of AI, or how to prepare a curious, capable child for what is coming. Their local schools may lack the teachers, resources, or student density to support specialized programs. Under the current system, those students are left without direction and must self-discover. But self-discovery is slow, uneven, and may arrive too late. The compounding effect of an early start is significant. A student who begins with exposure to a world beyond their classroom and builds foundational knowledge at twelve arrives at college with years of experience and genuine confidence. A student equally capable who starts their freshmen year of college spends cycles catching up. The goal is for students to enter dual-competency programs with foundational reps already in place – to have students arriving prepared, foundation already laid.

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A proposed framework: The Genesis Learning Platform

I propose a free, national online learning platform – built in partnership between DOE, national laboratories, universities, industry, and philanthropic organizations – designed to serve middle and high school students pursuing supplemental learning in AI and science. This is not another Coursera. The problem with existing platforms is abundance without direction – a student who arrives at DeepLearning.ai or Coursera faces a buffet with no menu. The Genesis platform must be curated – structured paths with a defined outcome. This is an optional enrichment layer to the existing K–12 curriculum (a Khan Academy for AI and science), available to any student and usable in classrooms or independently. It is designed specifically for the self-directed, high-agency learner who wants more than their local school can offer. Platform features:
  • Curated, sequenced curriculum paths developed by DOE, national laboratories, universities, and industry – reflecting what students need to know before entering dual competency undergraduate programs
  • Student profiles with verified badges upon course completion – a portable, trustworthy record of demonstrated knowledge
  • A linked project portfolio where students document and publish their work, going beyond GPA and test scores to show capabilities and thinking process
  • Industry-submitted challenge problems, modeled on Kaggle problem sets and competitions, where companies contribute real-world problems for students to tackle. Problems should be non-proprietary or already-solved – student IP remains owned by the student. The value to industry is talent identification, not solution harvesting. Advisors should counsel students that genuinely novel ideas with commercial potential belong outside the platform.
  • Open access to all – students, homeschoolers, and lifelong learners – consistent with the lifelong learning mandate in EO 14277
Remote advisor network: The platform alone is passive. Students in communities without STEM exposure need more than a website – they need a person. Someone who can answer questions, provide direction, and make them aware this path exists at all. DOE should fund a network of remote advisors matched with students showing aptitude on the platform. One advisor serving a distributed group of students across multiple districts is feasible and cost-effective. This relationship functions as an Individualized AI & Science/Engineering Development Plan – analogous to the Individualized Education Plans already established for students with disabilities. The student’s learning path is personalized, adaptive, and not constrained by standard curriculum. Just as we have recognized that some students require customized support to reach their potential in one direction, we should recognize that advanced students require customized support to reach their potential in another. Equipment, software, and compute access: Students cannot do serious AI work on inadequate hardware and internet connections. Devices, home connectivity, and compute access are the textbooks of AI education. Several existing models can be extended:
  • AWS Educate, Google Cloud for Students, and Microsoft Azure for Students already provide free compute credits to enrolled students. A government-negotiated compute tier built into Genesis platform enrollment would consolidate and extend these programs to middle and high schoolers.
  • Many districts already issue Chromebooks, establishing a device distribution precedent that can be built upon.
  • Industry can contribute directly. Palantir’s Valley Forge program is a strong model – providing students with funding, full platform access, and engineer support to work on real problems. Similar industry-sponsored programs connected to the Genesis platform would give students the tools they need and give companies early visibility into emerging talent.

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Industry Collaborations and Experiential Learning

Some of the most formative experiences in my education came from working alongside industry, not from the classroom. A senior capstone project with Cisco – building a real application, presenting to executives, writing proposals – was a glimpse into the workforce no course could replicate. An internship with Perot Systems closed the gap between theory and practice in ways that stayed with me throughout my career. Both opportunities came through my university’s relationships with local companies. That connective tissue existed because someone built it. It needs to be built at national scale. If industry wants to help build this pipeline, companies need to invest in offering well-coordinated, substantive projects and internships – and they need to start earlier. Junior and senior year of high school is not too soon. A student who completes a project or internship in eleventh grade, twelfth grade, and every year of college arrives at their career with six rotations of real-world experience. That is a fundamentally different candidate. These programs need to be taken seriously. Internships are too often an afterthought – under-resourced, loosely structured, and disconnected from meaningful work. Students benefit most when the people they work with are given the time and the mandate to actually engage with them. Done well, this is not a burden on industry. It is an extended audition for the talent they will eventually need to hire. Equally important is broadening who participates. The companies best positioned to offer these experiences are not only large corporations. Small and mid-size companies – manufacturers, startups, regional firms – often have the most tangible, hands-on problems for students to work on. A mechanism is needed to connect these companies with students regardless of geography or school affiliation. The Genesis platform is a natural home for this – a place where any company, anywhere in the country, can post a project, offer an internship, and get connected to a student who is ready. This is where soft skills develop, where students encounter real teams and real constraints, and where the distance between classroom and career begins to close.

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Community programs: ROTC and space camp models

For communities large enough to support it, in-person programs are a powerful complement to online learning. ROTC-style programs – High school ROTC identifies, develops, and pipelines students into military careers. A parallel structure for AI, science, and engineering – school-sponsored, community-rooted, and connected to the Genesis platform – would give high-agency students a cohort, a mentor, and a structured local path. Immersive summer programs – Space Camp has spent decades showing what a week of hands-on science can do for a young person’s sense of what is possible. A Genesis equivalent – hosted at DOE National Laboratories or university campuses – would bring students together for hackathons, project work, industry speakers, and direct exposure to working scientists and engineers.

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The outcome: a better-prepared college freshman

With the Genesis Learning Platform, advisor network, equipment access, industry collaborations, and community programs in place, the undergraduate pipeline will receive stronger inputs. A student arriving freshman year could bring:
  • Foundational knowledge in AI and a scientific or engineering discipline, built through years of structured self-directed learning.
  • A verified skills profile showing completed curriculum paths and earned badges.
  • A project portfolio with personal projects, industry challenge responses, and written retrospectives documenting their thinking and problem-solving process.
  • Real-world collaboration experience – a company project or summer program – before they ever set foot on a university campus.
This student is not intimidated by a dual competency program. They are ready for it. They have already been doing the work. The Genesis Mission has an opportunity to ensure that who arrives prepared is not determined by geography or circumstance. Any student with the drive and the aptitude – wherever they are in this country – deserves a clear path to this work.
Last update: 2026.03.04