Two rising third graders from Hillside Elementary School in Livingston, New Jersey, are the New Jersey state winners of the 2026 Presidential AI Challenge. Jason Liu and Ziyan Qazi-Jumrani earned the title for "Recipe Companion - An AI-based Custom Recipe Generator," a project that uses artificial intelligence to create personalized recipes based on user preferences. They now advance to the regional round of the national competition.
How the project works
The students' project tailors culinary recipes to individual dietary needs, available ingredients, or taste preferences. Judges said the work showed strong creativity, collaboration, and technical application for the elementary school level. The challenge, tied to the country's 250th anniversary, asked participants to design an AI method or tool that addresses a community problem.
A national push to build AI skills early
The Presidential AI Challenge aims to give young people, in the words of its website, "foundational knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in an increasingly digital society." The program connects students with AI experts for guidance and coaching. National winners presented their projects at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. This year's competition drew submissions from across the country, with state winners moving on to regional judging.
The challenge reflects a growing emphasis on AI for Education in schools nationwide. Primary school teachers looking to bring similar hands-on AI work into their classrooms can find structured support through the AI Learning Path for Primary School Teachers.
Why this matters for educators
When second graders build AI tools that solve everyday problems, it signals how early students can engage with machine learning concepts. Projects like this one don't require advanced coding backgrounds-they reward clear thinking about how AI can serve real needs. For teachers, the takeaway is practical: even young learners can produce functional AI prototypes when the task is framed around a concrete outcome. The challenge's structure-state, regional, national rounds-also gives schools a ready-made framework for project-based AI units that align with broader digital literacy goals.
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