BYAI-4: Build Your AI Idea in 4 Weeks (Q3 2026)

​Program Overview (Jul 24 - Aug 23)

​This is the 6th offering of BYAI, a hybrid 4-week program hosted by Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!) and is led and taught by Dr. Issam Laradji.

​The goal is to support you to build and launch your own AI-powered app with a team (or solo) while learning modern AI development workflows (no coding experience required).

• ​Personalized guidance to bring your AI idea to life

• ​Constant support through Discord and co-working sessions

• ​Weekly lectures, deliverables, and social events

• ​Final presentations and demo day

• ​Certificates of Achievement provided

​What You'll Learn

• ​🤖 Agentic LLMs

• ​🔍 Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

• ​⚡ Prompt Engineering

• ​🛠️ Full Stack AI App Development

• ​🔗 Connecting Apps to Services & APIs

• ​🌐 Deployment & Commercialization

​Weekly Structure

• ​📚 Monday Online Lectures

• ​👥 Thursday In-Person Co-Working Sessions

• ​🎉 Biweekly Social Events

• ​💬 Constant Discord Support

• ​⏰ Sunday Deliverables

​Who's this For?

• ​👥 Developers, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and curious builders

• ​📅 Flexible schedule for people with full-time jobs or studies

• ​🧠 No coding experience required

​Roadmap

​🧠 Week 0: Idea & Optional Team Formation
Brainstorm ideas, form teams (or solo), and design your idea.

​⚡ Week 1: Build a Proof of Concept
Build the first working version of your app.

​🤖 Week 2: Add AI Features
Add chatbots, agents, RAG, and AI workflows.

​🔗 Week 3: Connect External Services
Connect tools like Google, Telegram, Discord, and Notion.

​🌐 Week 4: Deploy & Commercialize
Deploy, polish, and prepare your final presentation.

​🎤 Final Presentations
Present your app during the final showcase and demo day.

​Important Dates

• ​⚡ Kick off (in-person) at NEU on Jul 24 (5:30pm to 8pm)

• ​🎤 Final Presentations (in-person) at Aug 23rd (10:00am to 1:00pm)

​What You Get

• ​⚡ Weekly lectures and implementation guidance

• ​👥 Co-working spaces and networking

• ​💬 Active Discord channels with constant support

• ​🌐 Access to a community of AI builders

• ​🎓 Certificate of Completion

• ​🏆 Prizes for top demos

​✅ Please Prepare

• ​💻 Laptop

• ​🧩 VS Code installed

• ​🤖 Claude Code extension installed

• ​🔐 Access to Claude Code (subscription may be required)

• ​⚠️ Please install and test Claude Code before joining

• ​💡 An app idea you want to build

​Main Teacher

​Dr. Issam Laradji is a Research Scientist at ServiceNow Research and an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia.

​He has 14+ years of experience in AI research and 80+ publications at top venues including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ACL, and EMNLP.

​He leads the Predictive & Insights Agent Team at ServiceNow, where his work focuses on AI agents, deep research systems, enterprise AI, forecasting, and reliable AI workflows.

​He is also the founder of Vancouver AI Meetup (VAM!), a growing community focused on democratizing AI education through workshops, reading groups, hackathons, and hands-on AI programs.

​About Northeastern University

​Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experiential lifelong learning. With 13 campuses across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, over 320,000 alumni, and more than 3,800 partners worldwide, the global university network serves as a platform for scaling ideas, talent, and solutions. Located in the heart of downtown, the Vancouver campus offers a wide range of master’s-level tech degrees, including pathway programs that allow students with non-STEM backgrounds to pursue a graduate degree in tech.