About | GYST-AI

Why we exist

There are more young students doing genuine research than there are places to take it. Science fairs are valuable, and they give students a few minutes at a poster. And most academic conferences are geared towards faculty and students from universities.

The Global Youth AI & STEM Foundation addresses the missing gap: hosting international conferences where pre-college students' work can be submitted as a written paper, reviewed by people qualified to review it, and presented by the student who did it.

What we're organized to do

GYST-AI is dedicated to charitable and educational purposes for young scholars who want to advance their learning and research in the sciences, before they start university.

The fields we cover are biomedical sciences, artificial intelligence, medicine, technology, and related STEM disciplines. Part of the point is access: plenty of students are interested in these fields and have no obvious way in, and closing that gap is as much the work as running the events themselves.

The foundation is organized to host educational conferences, lectures, workshops, research opportunities, mentorship, and competitions for secondary-school students and other learners.

That is the remit we are built for, and we are starting with one thing. inCABS 2027, our inaugural conference, is running now. The rest is not scheduled yet. As each new program takes shape, we will add it here with dates you can plan around.

What the review process looks like

Every paper submitted to a GYST-AI conference is evaluated by approximately three independent reviewers on a Technical Program Committee, against the criteria adopted by other academic conferences. Those criteria are originality and innovation, scientific and technical merit, methodological rigor, significance and impact, relevance to the theme, and quality of writing.

The committee makes acceptance decisions based on those reviews and the overall balance of the program. Not every paper is accepted. That is what makes acceptance meaningful.

How the foundation is organized

GYST-AI is governed by a Board of Directors. Day to day it is run by volunteer officers, and those officers are high school students. There is no paid staff at all. That shapes what we can promise. We answer email as quickly as a volunteer team can, and we announce details once they are settled.

The foundation is currently incubated inside the Center for Data Science at the College of AI, Cyber and Computing, University of Texas at San Antonio. The Center Director, Dr. Anthony Rios, provides the programmatic mentoring and support for the foundation.

The board and the officers are listed on the Leadership page, each with their role and affiliation. The Technical Program Committee that reviews papers is separate from both, and is listed on each conference's own site.

The official working language of our conferences is English. All papers, presentations, and conference communications are conducted in English.

Who can take part

The foundation exists for secondary-school students and other learners who have not yet begun postsecondary education, anywhere in the world. There are no geographic restrictions.

Eligibility for a specific program is set by that program. For inCABS 2027, submission is open to students at any recognized high school, individually or in a team. Schools, including homeschools, need to be recognized by their country's Ministry of Education or equivalent government body. The full rules are on the conference's own site.

What we don't do

A few things we want to be upfront about, so you know what you are signing up for.