​​Program Overview

​This is the 5th offering of BYAI-6, an online and in-person 6-week program hosted by Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!):

• ​​Personalized Guidance to bring your AI idea to life

• ​​Frequent Support from a passionate community and teachers

• ​​Awards for the top 3 demos

• ​​Runs from Jan 10, 2026 to Feb 21, 2026

​​What You'll Get to Learn

• ​​🤖 Agentic LLMs

• ​​🔍 Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

• ​​⚡ Prompt Engineering

• ​​🛠️ Full Stack Implemenation of an AI App

​​Program Highlights

• ​​Work at your own pace online with a team

• ​​Learn from research and industry experts

• ​​Connect with new people in the field

• ​​No mandatory in-person attendance required (but you will be missing the Thursdays in-person co-working sessions and the Social Events)

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​​How does it work?

​​🚀 AI Idea & Team Formation:

• ​​💡In the first week, be prepared to propose or join an existing project that you are excited about.

​​🎯 See Example Projects:

• ​​AI Essay Grader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9I7SuuPctk

• ​​Fake News Detector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG24uUtCHR4

• ​​Blend your moments into captivating reels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1N5obByhB8

• ​More here: https://vam-nexus.github.io/byai-6/gallery.html#gallery

​​💬 Communication:

• ​​Get access to a Discord community for regular teachings, personalized feedback, and support from facilitators and the community when you apply.

​​📅 Agenda:

​​Program runs from Jan 10, 2026 to Feb 21, 2026

​​🎯 Orientation Day

• ​Jan 10, 2026, 11:00-1:30pm (PST)

• ​​Available in-person (and online via Zoom) at Northeastern University 410 W Georgia St #1400 Vancouver

​​🎉 Demo Day

• ​Feb 21 2026, Saturday, 11:00-1:30pm (PST)

• ​In-person (and online via Zoom) at Northeastern University 410 W Georgia St #1400 Vancouver

​​Each week includes (all optional)

• ​Weekly Online Monday Lectures from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

• ​​📚 Weekly Online 1-on-1 Office Hours

  • ​​Flexible Timings through the Week

  • ​For all kinds of support

• ​​👥 In-person co-working spaces

  • ​Thursdays, 5:30-7:00pm (PST)

  • ​​For people to work together and network

  • ​Location: Vancouver Downtown

• ​​🎉 In-person social events

  • ​​Every 2nd Saturday, 5:30pm-8:00pm(PST)

​​⏰ Deadlines:

• ​​✅ Weekly assignments due Sunday midnight

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​​Who's this For?

• ​​👥 Developers, entrepreneurs, or students passionate about building an AI-driven project.

• ​​📅 Flexible schedule: Works well for those with full-time jobs or full time studies

  • ​​Work at your own pace, online, during nights and weekends.

• ​​🧠 Skills needed: Some grasp of Python (or the willingness to read some Python Code)

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​​Roadmap

​​🎯 Goal of the Program

• ​Build a full web app MVP (we recommend Flask, but you can use any framework you like), with clean GitHub code, fully deployed, and presented in a polished 1-minute public demo.

​🧠 Week 0: Setup

• ​Join the Discord to introduce yourself, think about the app you want to build, and connect with others in the community. The best ideas are ones you would personally use.

​⚡ Week 1: Build a Basic Agentic AI App

• ​Fine-tune your AI idea and start building the foundations of your app.

​👥 Week 2: Share Your Idea

• ​Create and share a proof of concept for your AI idea, then refine it through feedback.

​💬 Week 3: Build a Prototype

• ​Add your first AI feature and deploy your app so others can try it.

​🤝 Week 4: Create a User Interface

• ​Incorporate RAG and data retrieval into your app and improve the user interface.

​🌐 Week 5: Test Your App

• ​Run unit tests and LLM-based tests to ensure everything works reliably.

​📅 Week 6: Submit and Present

• ​Prepare for Demo Day, deploy and polish your app, and present a clean 1-minute public demo with a tidy GitHub repo showcasing your MVP.

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​​What You Get

• ​​⚡ Weekly lectures, labs and assignments covering cutting-edge AI topics

• ​​👥 Office hours and co-working spaces (both in-person & Online)

• ​​💬 Active Discord Channels with support from expert devs and professors

• ​​🤝 Dedicated accountability partner for motivation

• ​​🌐 Network with industry developers and AI experts in the field

• ​​🎯 Final demo day to showcase your work to a worldwide audience

• ​​🎓 Certificate of Achievement upon successful program completion

• ​​🍽️ Social Events - Potluck Style to Connect and Network

• ​​🏆 Win prizes from challenges and best demos

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​​What Our Participants Say

​​"As we wrap up an incredible 6 weeks of hard work, learning, and collaboration, I’m thrilled to share that my AI project is nearing completion! These past weeks have been filled with challenges, tight deadlines, new skills, and so much fun. A huge shoutout to Vancouver AI Space and our amazing instructors and facilitators, Issam Laradji and Kosay Jabre, for making this journey possible. Your guidance and the vibrant virtual and physical spaces you’ve provided have been invaluable for learning, socializing, and supporting one another."

​​- Tijana Sretenović

​​"I am deeply grateful to the organizers of the Vancouver AI Space program @Issam Laradji and @Kosay as well as all the participants for fostering such an inspiring and creative environment that stimulated meaningful discussions and ideas. The experience has been incredibly helpful in advancing the development of my app, DiabetesAI. I am proud to be part of this vibrant Vancouver AI community and look forward to contributing further to its growth and innovation."

​​- Igor Putrenko

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​If you have no experience in Python, I highly recommend taking a course in Python. I recommend either:

• ​taking and completing this free online Zero-to-Hero Python Crash course: https://www.deeplearning.ai/short-courses/ai-python-for-beginners/

• ​Or this $35 in-person Python Crash Course that I will be offering on Jan 11: https://luma.com/dwd58l1e

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​​Main Teacher

​​​Issam Laradji LinkedIn

​​Adjunct Professor, UBC, Research Scientist, ServiceNow

​​​Research Scientist at ServiceNow and an Adjunct Professor at University of British Columbia. He has a postdoc from McGill and a PhD from the University of British Columbia, and his research interests include natural language processing, computer vision, and large-scale optimization.