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AI sales automation startup Nooks secures a $500M commitment from General Catalyst's CVF, which will take a share of the returns its capital helps generate — Nooks has secured a $500 million commitment from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund to finance the company's sales and marketing push …
In 2023, the National STEM Challenge launched with a goal of attracting students to technical fields—including those who wouldn’t have necessarily seen themselves as traditional science types.
Roughly three years later, the event—now known as the National STEM Festival—has drawn students from across the country to present innovative projects at its annual gathering in Washington, D.C. The festival, run by the educational media company Explr, has also provided connections with business leaders and public officials for students looking to explore what careers in science might look like for them and how they can take their projects further, whether that means additional research or filing for intellectual property protection.
“We’ve been able to connect students with leaders and mentors and just bigger opportunities, so that they could develop their ideas even further,” says Kari Byron, who cofounded Explr and is a former cast member of TV’s MythBusters.
Now, the festival is planning to expand abroad, starting with an inaugural United Kingdom festival slated for May 2027. The U.K. event is open to students between 13 and 19 from England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, who can apply by November 22 to participate. Up to 40 will be chosen to present their work at the festival in London. As in the United States, part of the goal is helping make STEM fields accessible to people from a variety of communities and backgrounds, so travel and accommodations will be paid, says Jenny Buccos, Explr cofounder and CEO. Students will have the chance to meet a range of potential mentors and supporters.
Jenny Buccos (left), Kari Byron (right) [Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]“Very much like the U.S. has federal government participation, one of our events is taking place at the House of Lords,” Buccos says.
In the U.S. festival, students have presented projects ranging from a machine to recycle waste plastic into 3D printing filament to to a pill-counting app aimed at pharmacies with limited resources that lack traditional pill-counting machines. In the 2026 festival, which took place in June, about 42% of projects involved artificial intelligence to some degree, according to Explr data, though only about 13.6% were primarily focused on AI and machine learning itself, suggesting students aren’t simply following the latest trends.
“The projects are increasingly showing us what young people believe is worth solving,” Buccos says.
[Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]In addition to honing and showing off their scientific prowess, students receive help with networking and presenting their ideas, including via a science networking course offered through the festival, Buccos says. There’s even a podcast where some participants have discussed their ideas.
“We’re trying to go back and give them the skills that they can carry with them throughout their life, even if they choose to not go into a STEM career,” she says. “Being able to express your ideas and adjust it to an audience is really, really important.”
[Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]Students naturally connect with each other through the festival—“They started as strangers, and by the end, these kids are dancing, they’re singing Taylor Swift songs together,” says Byron, the Explr cofounder—and remain digitally connected after they return home. Some have come back to help the next cohort of students present their ideas, and they’ve offered feedback on the festival itself.
[Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]The events are unlikely to be limited to the U.S. and U.K. Plans are underway for a festival in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November 2027, and Explr is in early discussions about hosting a regional festival in the United Arab Emirates, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa.
“The idea is, we have the Olympics every four years,” says Buccos. “Why aren’t we having innovation summits like this for young people?”
In 2023, the National STEM Challenge launched with a goal of attracting students to technical fields—including those who wouldn’t have necessarily seen themselves as traditional science types.
Roughly three years later, the event—now known as the National STEM Festival—has drawn students from across the country to present innovative projects at its annual gathering in Washington, D.C. The festival, run by the educational media company Explr, has also provided connections with business leaders and public officials for students looking to explore what careers in science might look like for them and how they can take their projects further, whether that means additional research or filing for intellectual property protection.
“We’ve been able to connect students with leaders and mentors and just bigger opportunities, so that they could develop their ideas even further,” says Kari Byron, who cofounded Explr and is a former cast member of TV’s MythBusters.
Now, the festival is planning to expand abroad, starting with an inaugural United Kingdom festival slated for May 2027. The U.K. event is open to students between 13 and 19 from England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, who can apply by November 22 to participate. Up to 40 will be chosen to present their work at the festival in London. As in the United States, part of the goal is helping make STEM fields accessible to people from a variety of communities and backgrounds, so travel and accommodations will be paid, says Jenny Buccos, Explr cofounder and CEO. Students will have the chance to meet a range of potential mentors and supporters.
Jenny Buccos (left), Kari Byron (right) [Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]“Very much like the U.S. has federal government participation, one of our events is taking place at the House of Lords,” Buccos says.
In the U.S. festival, students have presented projects ranging from a machine to recycle waste plastic into 3D printing filament to to a pill-counting app aimed at pharmacies with limited resources that lack traditional pill-counting machines. In the 2026 festival, which took place in June, about 42% of projects involved artificial intelligence to some degree, according to Explr data, though only about 13.6% were primarily focused on AI and machine learning itself, suggesting students aren’t simply following the latest trends.
“The projects are increasingly showing us what young people believe is worth solving,” Buccos says.
[Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]In addition to honing and showing off their scientific prowess, students receive help with networking and presenting their ideas, including via a science networking course offered through the festival, Buccos says. There’s even a podcast where some participants have discussed their ideas.
“We’re trying to go back and give them the skills that they can carry with them throughout their life, even if they choose to not go into a STEM career,” she says. “Being able to express your ideas and adjust it to an audience is really, really important.”
[Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]Students naturally connect with each other through the festival—“They started as strangers, and by the end, these kids are dancing, they’re singing Taylor Swift songs together,” says Byron, the Explr cofounder—and remain digitally connected after they return home. Some have come back to help the next cohort of students present their ideas, and they’ve offered feedback on the festival itself.
[Photo: Courtesy of National STEM Festival]The events are unlikely to be limited to the U.S. and U.K. Plans are underway for a festival in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November 2027, and Explr is in early discussions about hosting a regional festival in the United Arab Emirates, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa.
“The idea is, we have the Olympics every four years,” says Buccos. “Why aren’t we having innovation summits like this for young people?”
I’ve known hundreds of software developers during my career in financial services. Maybe even thousands. What nearly all of them share is the pride and respect they have for the craft. Good code takes time, discipline, and judgment.
So, what happens now that AI can generate working code in seconds and then test it, fix it, and deploy it? Many are asking if the coding profession is on borrowed time.
But that framing misses what’s changing and why.
History tells us that when building becomes easier, the world needs more builders. E-commerce opened new markets, so more people started selling. Cloud computing widened what was possible, so businesses built more software. AI is now bringing that same expansion to software development. It makes code easier to produce and puts more value into the decisions that can’t be automated away. That is the human part.
AI will eliminate the idea that a developer’s value is typing code. The developer role is evolving into something broader and more strategic: software engineering. Great engineers define the problem, design for resilience, and embrace system-level thinking. They guide and validate complex architecture to ensure the product is safe and accurate for customers. High-quality engineers know when a feature is ready and when an AI-generated answer is wrong. They understand when a faster release creates more risk. That judgment is still important.
Together, AI and developers can turn more good ideas into secure, reliable, and valued products. At Synchrony, we’re already seeing this happen. In early pilots with our engineering teams, busywork and rework has shrunk and quality risen, with an estimated 25% faster delivery, 30% fewer defects, 120% more unit tests, and nearly 40% fewer security vulnerabilities.
TRUST REQUIRES GOVERNANCEAI also relies on other human traits that it doesn’t possess, including the curiosity and discipline to challenge what it produces. Remember, mistakes including security gaps, flawed assumptions, and even data exposure can ship just as fast as clean code. We know we can build it, but can we trust it? We need engineers to test the output and challenge the assumptions. The engineers know when to reject bad code the tool produces. Ultimately, companies can ship code faster, with better outcomes and more time to spend on problems that require human judgment.
That’s why governance can’t be an afterthought. It must be built into how teams use AI, with clear guardrails on approved tools, data use, human review, traceability, quality, and security checks. AI can support work end to end, but accountability stays with people. Even in the age of AI, that is still the only way to create software customers can rely on.
FOR EARLY CAREER TALENT, AI IS AN ACCELERATORThose same guardrails and fast feedback loops affect talent too, especially early-career engineers. Some argue AI makes junior hiring unnecessary. That’s not what we find. Early-career engineers often experiment and get creative with these tools quickly, bringing new ideas to the table. Used well, AI is a programming partner that can explain unfamiliar code, flag downstream effects, and help a junior engineer get unstuck faster.
But the benefits are not automatic. Junior talent contributes faster only when companies invest in the fundamentals: a culture of trust and responsibility and real mentorship. AI can accelerate learning, but it can’t replace ownership. We need early career talent to become tomorrow’s senior engineers and leaders, and leadership is built by learning the craft from the ground up.
A WIDER ON-RAMP FOR SOFTWARE CAREERSAI can also make the profession more accessible for people who did not start on a traditional path. This is personal for me. Growing up, I didn’t think it was possible for me to be a C-suite leader of a financial services company. I loved computer science, but I opted out of AP computer science in high school because I was the only girl in the room. Moments like that shape who sees a future for themselves in the industry.
What changes that experience is faster feedback, safer ways to ask questions, and more support while you build confidence. For many people, the missing piece is confidence, which requires a better way to practice. And leaders still have to do the work around coaching and setting clear expectations.
Universities are responding too, blending AI with a broad range of disciplines from language to critical thinking. What’s emerging is the foundation for modern development that combines the best of human and machine.
The optimist in me sees that there is no set playbook and that creates opportunity to thrive. The people and teams that improve fastest will practice with the tools every day and build habits around review and quality, as well as accountability. Leaders should support these behaviors by investing in them. They can transform workflow and reward quality and judgment over raw volume and output. Developers should reinvent themselves as engineers by building fluency with AI the same way they build fluency with any core tool. They should own the results, using it often and testing what it gives back.
The future will belong to those who can build software people can trust. And that means more software engineers using judgment to solve harder problems.
Carol Juel is executive vice president and CEO of digital platform at Synchrony.