AI Summer Lab: Student Success Challenge

Applying AI to improve first-year success, retention, and timely degree completion.

AI Summer Lab is an applied AI innovation program designed to help the Hebrew University explore how artificial intelligence can improve the first-year student experience, increase access to support services, reduce dropout risk, and support timely degree completion.

The program brings together students for practical AI learning, user research, product development, responsible innovation, and prototype work around one central challenge.

How might AI help first-year students better navigate university life, access relevant support at the right time, and successfully progress toward completing their degree?

Overview

Participants will learn practical AI tools, user research, product development, and responsible innovation, then work in teams to develop prototype solutions around first-year student success.

The purpose is twofold: to equip students with practical AI and innovation skills, and to generate student-led, pilot-ready solutions that HUJI can evaluate for potential future implementation.

Rationale and value for HUJI

First-year student success and timely degree completion are major challenges in higher education. National data shows that 7.4% of new bachelor’s students in Israel stopped studying after their first year, including 5.2% in universities. OECD data shows that in Israel, only 61% of bachelor’s students complete their degree within the standard time, rising to 75% one year later and 79% three years later.

This challenge is directly aligned with HUJI’s strategic priorities. The Hebrew University’s strategic plan states that the university seeks to minimize student attrition and delays in academic progression by tailoring learning experiences and institutional support to students’ individual needs.

For HUJI, the AI Summer Lab can provide:

Practical AI prototypes addressing student success, retention, and timely completion
New approaches to academic guidance, student services, belonging, and early support
A structured platform for collaboration between students, faculty, support units, and industry mentors
A visible initiative connecting AI innovation with institutional priorities
A foundation for future pilots, research, and scalable student-support solutions
A practical opportunity to address a challenge with significant financial and operational implications

Conservative tuition-only modeling suggests first-year dropout and delayed completion may represent an estimated 11.5-13.4 million NIS in financial and operational impact per bachelor cohort.

Even a modest improvement can create meaningful value. If an AI-powered support solution helps reduce dropout and delayed completion by only 10%, the estimated annual financial and operational value could reach approximately 800,000-1,000,000 NIS per cohort.

KPIs

The pilot should be considered successful if it achieves the following minimum outcomes:

30students enrolled

85%+program completion rate

80%+average attendance

6working prototypes developed

3+pilot-ready solutions

1+solution selected by HUJI for further exploration

Primary KPI: at least 3 pilot-ready AI solutions that address first-year student success, retention, and timely degree completion.

Core learning topics

The two-week online lab will focus on the essential knowledge, tools, and methods required to understand the challenge and develop relevant AI-based solutions.

First-year student success, dropout risk, and delayed completion

Student journey mapping and user research

Generative AI and Large Language Models

Prompt engineering for practical problem solving

AI-powered student support systems

Multilingual and accessible AI assistance

Learning analytics and early-support approaches

Responsible AI, privacy, ethics, and bias

Product design and rapid prototyping

Pitch development, demo preparation, and impact storytelling

SDG alignment

The AI Summer Lab contributes to several UN Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 4

Quality Education: enhancing access to academic support, learning resources, and tools that help students succeed.

SDG 9

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: applying AI and technological innovation to real institutional challenges in higher education.

SDG 10

Reduced Inequalities: reducing barriers to academic success through more accessible, personalized, and proactive support.

SDG 17

Partnerships for the Goals: creating collaboration between academia, civil society, industry, and students around practical, scalable solutions.

Proposed next step

Datahack would like to explore a pilot partnership with the Hebrew University to further define the student-success challenge, identify relevant university stakeholders, explore funding opportunities, secure a venue for the hackathon and Demo Day, and build a joint implementation plan, budget, and timeline.

The goal of the initial discussion is to assess the strategic relevance of the challenge for HUJI and identify the partnership and funding model required to make the pilot feasible.