ILB Stanford Abu Dhabi
Transform Ideas Into Impactful Innovation
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Innovation and Leadership Bootcamp by Stanford Alumni
Shape Tomorrow Through AI-Driven Innovation
This intensive 4-day AI-centered program unites students to discover practical problem-solving via cutting-edge technology, collaboration, and creative thinking. Covering sectors including healthcare, legal, ethics, governance, and decision science, participants will create and build meaningful AI-powered solutions with supervision from accomplished Stanford Alumni.
Program Details
Location
Office 1402, Salam HQ Building, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Venue Partner
To be confirmed
Dates
16th - 19th October, 2025
(Thursday - Sunday)
Duration
4 Days
Time
9AM - 5PM GST
Age Groups
13-18 Years
How It Works
Learn & Collaborate
Students kick off with workshops, mentor talks, and team formation. They explore AI themes, frame problem statements, and set up their tools and workflows.
Build & Innovate
Through hands-on sprints, teams design backends, develop models, and create user-friendly frontends. They iterate, test, and refine their projects with continuous mentor feedback.
Present & Connect
On the final day, teams showcase their solutions through demos and pitches, receive judge feedback, and network with peers and mentors while celebrating their achievements.
From Ideas to Impact: The 4 Day Journey
Kickoff & Foundations
- Welcome, goals, and judging criteria
- Icebreakers, networking, and team formation
- Challenge framing: themes, scope, and success metrics
- Mentor talks on problem selection, datasets, and UX
- Problem statement workshop
- Tech setup, workflow introduction, and environment build
- UX sprint: user flows, wireframes, and data needs
- Data planning and first draft of Model Card
Building the Core
- Introduction to API design and backend structure
- Backend development: database, routes, and APIs
- Data preparation and training of a baseline model
- Connecting model outputs with the backend
- Testing, integration, and validation of early prototypes
Bringing Ideas to Life
- Introduction to frontend design and user experience
- Frontend sprint: layouts, components, and API connection
- Model refinement: tweaks, evaluation, and improvements
- End-to-end testing and polishing the user journey
- Pitch workshop: narrative building, slides, and demo preparation
Closing Ceremony
- Final project refinements and polish
- Team presentations and demo fair
- Judge walkthroughs and mentor reflections
- Awards ceremony and feedback session
- Networking and closing celebration
Impact & Outcomes
• Real-World AI Project Development
• Stanford-Level Mentorship Experience
• Innovation Leadership Foundation
• Cross-Industry Problem Solving
• Professional Presentation & Pitching Skills
Meet Your Stanford Alumni
Chan Leem
MA in International Policy, School of Humanities and Sciences
About Chan Leem
Chanwool (Chan) Leem, from Bucheon, South Korea, is pursuing the Ford Dorsey master's in international policy at Stanford University. He graduated from Seoul National University with bachelor's degrees in Hispanic language and literature, and political science and international relations. Chan's research interests include developing effective international rules for cyberspace that meaningfully reflect the viewpoints and interests of nongovernmental stakeholders.
Before Stanford, Chan served as a diplomat. He represented South Korea at U.N. cybersecurity negotiations, spearheaded the country's first-ever participation at a NATO summit, negotiated and implemented military agreements with the United States Forces Korea, and worked on South Korea's diplomatic rapprochement toward Cuba. For military duty, he served in the 8th U.S. Army as a KATUSA sergeant (E-5) and received an Army Commendation Medal. He received the Foreign Ministry's Outstanding Policy Report Award in 2021 and was a Fulbright Scholarship candidate in 2022.
Andrew Couch
PhD in Management Science and Engineering
About Andrew Couch
Andrew Couch, from Huntsville, Alabama, is pursuing a PhD in management science and engineering with a focus on decision and risk analysis at Stanford School of Engineering. At the University of Alabama in Huntsville, he earned both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in industrial and systems engineering. At 17, he earned a bachelor's degree in management from Thomas Edison State University.
Andrew aspires to advance the economic well-being of everyday individuals, small businesses, and rural communities through applied research in data-driven decision-making under uncertainty. With interests in data science, he has conducted engineering research that tackles barriers in STEM education, school safety, and nursing shortages throughout Alabama.
Through his service as an Engineering Research Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, his research identifies novel pathways to technology industrialization for small enterprises lacking adequate technology access. Andrew is a widely published author of engineering research.
Sang Truong
Computer Science PhD
About Sang Truong
Sang Truong is a Computer Science Ph.D. student at Stanford University and a researcher at the Stanford AI Lab, where he develops methods to evaluate and align AI systems with human values. His work combines tools from measurement theory, preference learning, and decision theory to ensure AI models are safe, reliable, and fair.
At Stanford, he has contributed to major research on language model evaluation, introducing adaptive testing frameworks like Item Response Theory to improve benchmarking efficiency and robustness. His research spans foundational ML theory and real-world applications, with active contributions to Stanford-led initiatives such as HELM and the Human-Centered AI community.
Jocelyn
PhD candidate in Neurosciences at Stanford University
About Jocelyn A. Ricard
I am currently a PhD candidate in Neurosciences at Stanford University. I am a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow, a National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine Ford Foundation Predoctoral Scholar, an Institute of International Education (IIE) Quad Fellow, and a Stanford University Knight-Hennessy Scholar!
My research investigates the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on adolescent neurodevelopment and its downstream effects on substance use. Additionally, I examine how methodological practices in human neuroimaging impact the generalizability of neuroscience research.
Prior to starting at Stanford University, I worked as a post-baccalaureate computational research assistant at the Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) in Berlin, Germany, followed by a research assistant position in neuroscience at Yale University.
Meet Your Stanford Mentors
Chan Leem
MA in International Policy, School of Humanities and Sciences
About Chan Leem
Chanwool (Chan) Leem, from Bucheon, South Korea, is pursuing the Ford Dorsey master's in international policy at Stanford. He graduated from Seoul National University with bachelor's degrees in Hispanic language and literature, and political science and international relations. Chan's research interests include developing effective international rules for cyberspace that meaningfully reflect the viewpoints and interests of nongovernmental stakeholders.
Before Stanford, Chan served as a diplomat. He represented South Korea at U.N. cybersecurity negotiations, spearheaded the country's first-ever participation at a NATO summit, negotiated and implemented military agreements with the United States Forces Korea, and worked on South Korea's diplomatic rapprochement toward Cuba. For military duty, he served in the 8th U.S. Army as a Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) sergeant (E-5) and received an Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM). He received the Foreign Ministry's Outstanding Policy Report Award in 2021 and was a Fulbright Scholarship candidate in 2022.