Meet 16-year-old Aadit Bontha, a high school junior from Philadelphia. Through his AEOP Internship, he explored the world of artificial intelligence and even developed his own app. Read on to learn more. 

Tell me about yourself.
I’m 16 years old and a junior at La Salle, a prep school near Philadelphia. I fence competitively and, when I get the chance, I also enjoy golfing with my friends, listening to music, and traveling. 

How did you find AEOP?
Two years ago, during the summer after my freshman year, I took part in a program at the University of Pennsylvania. Through that experience, I met Miss Jefferson, who oversees AEOP at the university. She introduced me to  AEOP – another great STEM opportunity in the same location. The following summer, I reached out to her, and she explained that AEOP focused more on college-level research, which I found really interesting.

Through AEOP, I worked directly with Professor Dan Roth and Professor Vivek Gupta from the CogComp Group at UPenn—they were my mentors. Miss Jefferson oversaw the AEOP program logistics and kept in contact with the AEOP team.

What was it like having them as mentors?
In the first few weeks, my mentors provided a lot of guidance since I wasn’t familiar with the terminology or research language. Throughout the internship, I worked in the same office as one of the professors, so he was always available as a resource to answer questions and offer support. There were also several PhD students around, so if one of my professors was in a meeting or on a call, I could reach out to them for help.

I had a lot of support, but I didn’t want to rely on it too much—I still wanted to learn things on my own and challenge myself. That balance was really helpful, and having a strong network of experts to turn made the experience even better.

Tell me about the work you did that summer—you built an investing app?
Over the summer, I worked with data sets and AI. Initially, I started by learning Python and the basics of coding. As I progressed, I analyzed large computational data sets, working with vast amounts of numerical information. We used generative AI and models like ChatGPT to filter and extract useful information from these data sets. My focus was on large-scale data extraction, using ChatGPT as a benchmark to test different AI models to determine which performed best in certain scenarios.

There were 14 students in the program, and each of us was assigned a personal mentor to guide us through our projects. Everyone worked on different topics—some focused on robotics, others on chemistry, and some, like me, on AI and related fields. 

Despite working on different projects, we stayed close because we met two to three times a week. Being on-site at UPenn, we regularly gathered at the main engineering hall. It was a great experience meeting so many people, and we still keep in touch through a Slack channel and a group chat.

Why are you most interested in AI? What draws you to it?
I like AI because it’s a newer technology with a lot of potential for exploration. Unlike other fields that have been studied for decades, AI has only begun evolving rapidly in the last four or five years. That makes it exciting – there’s still so much to discover and develop.

You mentioned the Congressional App Challenge award. Could you tell me more about that and how it relates to your AEOP experience?
During AEOP, I learned a lot about JavaScript and Python, which I hadn’t really studied before. After speaking with one of my professors about how I could apply my new skills, he encouraged me to take on a project of my own. That’s when I decided to build an investment and finance app- which I thought would be a cool challenge.

As I developed the app, my professor supported  me along the way, offering tips, helping me fix occasional code errors, and guiding me through the process. It was a great opportunity to test the skills I had learned over the summer. My project was called Invest IQ, and that’s what I submitted for the Congressional App Challenge. While I didn’t win, I was thrilled that Invest IQ was recognized among the top projects. 

One of the coolest things about Invest IQ is that it actually teaches people about investing. Since it’s free and easy to use, anyone can learn how the stock market works and start making smarter financial decisions. I even used the app as part of the Wharton Global Investment Challenge to analyze stock trendlines and invest our simulated money strategically.

What is a lesson or takeaway from your AEOP experience?
The biggest lesson I learned is to never give up. At the beginning, I struggled with certain tasks because I didn’t know much about AI. But I kept working at it, gradually improving my coding skills. By the end of the program, I was fluent in multiple programming languages and able to write well-structured code. It was really rewarding because I never imagined I’d be able to do that when I first started.

Before AEOP, I had almost no knowledge of AI—let alone an understanding of how various AI tools on the market work behind the scenes. But after the internship, I had a solid foundation. I understood how AI models work, how to connect them to APIs, and how to integrate them into real projects. That experience really shaped my future interests.

What words of advice do you have for fellow students interested in AEOP or STEM in general?
AEOP is a really great experience, and I highly recommend it—even if you’re unsure whether STEM is for you. You get to meet amazing people, both your age and older, and you gain exposure to different career paths.

If you end up enjoying it, that’s great – it could be something you want to pursue in the future. But even if you realize it’s not for you, it’s still an excellent learning opportunity, and you’ll make valuable connections along the way.

My biggest advice is to talk to as many people as you can. AEOP offers many networking opportunities, whether it’s meeting other students, engaging with researchers at UPenn, or attending guest speaker sessions. There were Zoom webinars where professionals shared their insights. Even though many of these events are optional, I think they’re always worth attending because you never know who you’ll meet or what new information you’ll learn. The more you get involved, the more valuable your experience will be. 

To learn more about High School Internships, click here.