Arabian Post Staff -Dubai
The students, aged 13 to 17 and drawn from a range of nationalities, completed the 10-month programme at a ceremony held at the Museum of the Future. Enrolment rose 77 per cent from the first edition, taking the total number of Dubai TKS graduates to 250 across two cohorts. Applications for the 2026-2027 cohort have now opened.
The programme, delivered by Dubai Future Foundation in partnership with TKS Global, is designed to expose school students to real-world technology challenges normally associated with universities, research centres and corporate innovation labs. Participants worked on projects involving satellites, supersonic air travel, data storage, clean energy, biosensors, nanomedicine, geospatial AI and wearable optical technologies.
Dubai’s second cohort also joins a wider TKS network of more than 5,500 participants across over 500 cities, giving students access to mentors, founders, technologists and alumni working in innovation-driven fields. The Dubai edition places particular emphasis on practical problem-solving, public presentation, teamwork and technical literacy rather than conventional classroom assessment.
The latest group worked on challenges set by international organisations, companies and platforms, including the United Nations, XPANCEO and Lovable. The UN-linked challenges covered satellite connectivity systems, clean energy innovation, hybrid living data storage, the future of supersonic travel, wearable biosensors for internal health conditions and nanomedicine applications.
One student track explored how geospatial AI could support conflict mitigation and assess risks linked to pastoral migration in rural areas, an area where climate pressure, scarce resources and mobility patterns increasingly overlap. Other teams examined vision protection in space, athlete recovery, AI-powered product creation and collaborative creator hubs.
Alia Al Mur, Chief Transformation and Partnerships Officer at Dubai Future Foundation, said Dubai was investing in young people by giving them the skills, networks and opportunities needed to help shape the future. She said the programme was helping develop talent capable of building practical solutions to global challenges using advanced technologies.
Navid Nathoo, founder of TKS, said the cohort had shown the ability to identify problems, think independently and turn ideas into action. He said students had worked on challenges spanning AI, climate technology, health and advanced computing while building the confidence to lead in a more complex world.
Sahil Arora, TKS Dubai Program Director, said students had tackled challenges that many people do not encounter until far later in their careers, including satellite mesh networks, solar energy concepts and stem cell therapies for cancer treatment. He said the most important outcome was not only the projects produced, but the confidence, curiosity and ambition developed during the programme.
The graduation comes as Dubai continues to build a wider ecosystem around future skills, digital economy growth and learner-centred education. The emirate’s education strategy places greater emphasis on personalised learning, research, innovation and readiness for a changing labour market, while its economic agenda seeks to deepen Dubai’s role as a global hub for knowledge, technology and entrepreneurship.
The Dubai TKS model differs from traditional enrichment programmes by bringing teenagers into contact with industry-style problems, mentor feedback and emerging technology themes at an early stage. Students are introduced to artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, brain-computer interfaces, longevity, blockchain, battery technology, robotics, cancer solutions, the metaverse and moonshot thinking.
Weekly sessions and project work are structured to help participants move from broad exposure to focused research, then to practical proposals and presentations. The programme also introduces students to mental models, first-principles thinking, root-cause analysis, communication skills and professional networking.
Follow Arabian Post
Select Arabian Post as your preferred source on Google and MSN News for trusted business news and Arab politics and updates.
