2026 Summer Best Engineering Camp for High School | Autonomous Driving at UC Irvine

During the 2026 summer program at UC Irvine, Franklin Academy students spent two immersive weeks transforming engineering concepts into working autonomous rovers. From their first design exercises and Arduino challenges to final testing on an S-shaped course, students experienced how an engineering idea develops through building, programming, troubleshooting, and collaboration.

Hosted through Franklin Academy’s continuing partnership with the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering, the program placed high school students in a university engineering environment where they could learn by doing. Each day added a new layer to the project. Students explored computer-aided design, sensors, electronics, fabrication, programming, mechanical systems, and autonomous navigation before bringing those elements together in a final rover demonstration.

The 2026 engineering camp was not a competition. Its purpose was to give students the time, tools, and guidance to work through a complete engineering process. The final achievement was seeing each rover respond to the route, make adjustments around curves, and demonstrate the results of two weeks of focused project development.

The program began with an introduction to UC Irvine, the engineering facilities, and the project students would complete over the following two weeks. Before students could build an autonomous rover, they needed to understand how its individual systems would work together.

A rover that follows a route cannot depend on programming alone. It also requires reliable wiring, accurate sensor readings, controlled motor movement, and a mechanical structure that supports consistent performance. Throughout the camp, students gradually learned how each of these elements contributed to the final system.

The schedule balanced technical instruction with laboratory tours, engineering seminars, college preparation, team project time, and opportunities to learn from people working and studying in engineering. As students moved through the program, they became increasingly responsible for applying what they had learned to their own rover.

The first week introduced students to the campus and established the technical foundation for the autonomous driving project. After arrival, check-in, a campus tour, and orientation, students began exploring the academic and professional sides of engineering.

Workshops on project management and resume preparation encouraged students to think beyond the immediate project and consider how engineers organize their work and communicate their experience. A faculty seminar on engineering career paths and research gave students a broader view of the opportunities available within engineering, while an undergraduate panel offered a student perspective on college life.

Technical learning quickly became the focus of the week. Students were introduced to Onshape, Arduino, infrared sensors, motor shields, electronic components, and mechanical design. Instead of studying these topics only in theory, they applied them to the rover they would eventually test on the final course.

Tours and demonstrations added context to the classroom instruction. Students visited engineering spaces, observed fabrication and machine-shop processes, and explored how ideas move from a digital model to a physical component. Soldering training and electronics wiring sessions helped them understand the precision required to create reliable electrical connections.

As the first week progressed, students began designing the rover structure, working with wheels and motors, and developing components for the rover’s claw. Each task contributed to a larger goal: creating one autonomous system capable of sensing its environment and moving along a defined route.

One of the most important lessons of the camp was that autonomous driving depends on several engineering disciplines working together.

The rover’s sensors needed to collect useful information from the course. The Arduino program needed to interpret that information and determine how the rover should respond. The motor system needed to carry out those instructions with enough control to follow the route. At the same time, the mechanical structure needed to remain stable as the rover moved through each turn.

Students began to see how a problem in one area could affect the entire project. A sensor placed at the wrong angle could produce inconsistent readings. A loose wire could interrupt motor control. A structural issue could cause the rover to drift even when the code was functioning correctly. Changes to one component often required students to review the rest of the system.

This systems-based approach made the project more than a coding exercise or a vehicle assembly activity. Students had to observe how the full rover behaved and then determine which part of the system needed attention.

Arduino programming allowed students to connect digital instructions with physical movement. Code was no longer something that existed only on a screen. A change in a program could affect how quickly a wheel turned, when the rover adjusted direction, or how it responded to data from its sensors.

Infrared sensors helped the rover detect information related to the track. Students worked to understand how sensor readings influenced navigation and how programming logic could turn those readings into motor commands. This process introduced them to a central principle of autonomous technology: the continuous cycle of sensing, processing, deciding, and responding.

Electronics and wiring were equally important. Students learned that reliable performance depended on careful connections between the Arduino, sensors, motor shield, motors, and power system. Troubleshooting gave them opportunities to inspect those connections and determine whether a problem came from code, hardware, or both.

Using Onshape, students also explored how computer-aided design supports engineering development. Digital models gave them a way to plan rover components, consider dimensions, and refine mechanical ideas before fabrication or assembly.

By working across these areas, students experienced how mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer programming come together in an autonomous driving project.

The second week shifted from foundational learning toward sustained project development. Students continued working in teams as they assembled rover structures, connected electronic components, refined their code, and tested the performance of their systems.

A seminar on machine learning and artificial intelligence connected the hands-on rover project to broader developments in autonomous technology. Students also worked through pseudocode and code templates, helping them organize the logic behind the rover’s navigation before making further programming adjustments.

Much of the week was devoted to project work, testing, and improvement. Students observed how their rover responded to the route and made changes based on what they saw. The process required patience because not every adjustment produced the intended result.

A rover might respond too late when approaching a curve, move away from the track, or produce inconsistent sensor readings. Students had to slow down, examine the behavior, and identify possible causes. Some issues required changes to the program, while others involved sensor placement, wiring, motor response, or mechanical alignment.

This repeated cycle of testing and revision reflected the engineering design process in action. Rather than treating an unsuccessful test as the end of the project, students used it as information for the next improvement.

The most valuable moments in an engineering project are not always the moments when everything works. During the 2026 camp, unexpected rover behavior created opportunities for students to practice observation, analysis, and persistence.

When a rover had difficulty following part of the course, students could not rely on guesswork alone. They needed to consider what the rover was sensing, how the code interpreted that input, and whether the motor commands produced the expected movement.

This encouraged students to break larger problems into smaller questions. Was the sensor reading the route correctly? Was the program responding at the right threshold? Were both motors operating consistently? Was the rover’s structure affecting its direction?

Through this process, students learned that troubleshooting is not separate from engineering. It is one of the central ways engineering systems become more reliable.

Although the autonomous rover was the central project, the camp also gave students a broader introduction to university engineering.

Laboratory tours and engineering demonstrations showed how researchers and students use specialized spaces to design, fabricate, and test new technologies. Visits connected classroom concepts to real facilities where engineering work takes place.

Students also attended seminars and workshops related to engineering careers, research, project management, college applications, presentation skills, and poster development. These experiences helped them understand that engineering education involves more than technical coursework. Communication, planning, collaboration, and professional development are also essential.

An undergraduate panel provided insight into college life from the perspective of current students. Participants could learn more about engineering majors, university expectations, campus experiences, and the transition from high school to college.

Together, these activities helped students place the rover project within a larger academic context. They were not only completing a summer assignment; they were experiencing parts of the university engineering environment.

Engineering students need to do more than create a functioning system. They also need to explain their design choices, describe technical challenges, and communicate how they reached a solution.

During the second week, students worked on project posters and practiced presenting their rover development process. They reviewed what they had built, what problems they encountered, and what changes improved the rover’s performance.

This preparation encouraged students to think carefully about their own learning. Explaining a project requires a clear understanding of how its components work and why particular decisions were made.

The presentation process also reinforced teamwork. Each student contributed to the project, and the final explanation reflected the group’s combined design, programming, construction, and testing efforts.

For residential students, the experience continued after the weekday engineering schedule ended. Evening and weekend activities created time for recreation, community building, and additional learning.

The residential schedule included meals, campus activities, outdoor hiking, sports, debate, board games, reflection sessions, movie nights, an AI workshop, and open lab time. Students also had opportunities to visit the bookstore, spend time with their peers, and prepare for the final project demonstration.

These activities gave students a more complete experience of living and learning away from home. Time outside the laboratory allowed them to build friendships, develop independence, and connect with teammates in a less formal setting.

Open lab periods were especially useful as the final presentation approached. Students could continue refining their projects while balancing technical work with the social and recreational parts of the residential program.

During the final days of the camp, students concentrated on testing, troubleshooting, and refining their autonomous rover systems. Each team reviewed its wiring, sensor response, motor control, code, and mechanical structure to improve the rover’s ability to remain on the designated path.

The S-shaped course presented a meaningful navigation challenge. Unlike a straight track, it required the rover to respond repeatedly as the route changed direction. Sensors needed to detect the path consistently, the program needed to process that information, and the motors needed to make controlled adjustments through each curve.

Students ran repeated tests and observed how small changes affected performance. Adjusting sensor placement, modifying code, checking electrical connections, or refining the rover’s structure could improve how it handled the course.

At the same time, students prepared posters and practiced explaining their work. They organized their ideas so they could describe how the rover functioned, what difficulties they experienced, and how their team improved the system.

The program concluded with student presentations and an autonomous rover demonstration. There was no race or competition. Instead, each team had the opportunity to demonstrate the engineering system it had developed over the two-week program.

Students placed their rovers on the S-shaped route and showed how the vehicles used sensor input, Arduino programming, motor control, electronics, and mechanical design to follow the course autonomously.

The final demonstration brought every part of the camp together. The rover’s movement represented the combined results of CAD work, wiring, programming, assembly, testing, and repeated adjustment.

Students also explained their design process and reflected on the challenges they had encountered. A rover did not need to complete every movement perfectly for the demonstration to be meaningful. Each attempt showed what students had learned about developing and improving a complex engineering system.

For many participants, seeing the rover move independently along the S-shaped route was a visible reminder of how far the project had progressed since the first day.

By the end of the program, students had gained more than experience with an autonomous rover.

They had practiced using Arduino, sensors, circuitry, motors, CAD, fabrication tools, and autonomous navigation logic. They had also learned how engineering decisions in one area could influence the performance of an entire system.

Just as importantly, students strengthened their ability to work in teams, manage a multi-stage project, communicate technical ideas, and respond constructively when something did not work as expected.

The project gave students a chance to experience engineering as an active process. They moved from learning individual tools to integrating those tools into a functioning system. They saw that progress often comes through repeated testing rather than one perfect first attempt.

The two-week experience also gave participants a closer look at university-level engineering and the different academic paths connected to robotics, computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and artificial intelligence.

The 2026 program continued Franklin Academy’s partnership with the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering, creating an opportunity for high school students to explore engineering through university-based instruction and hands-on project development.

Each year, the program gives a new group of students the opportunity to move from curiosity to creation. The specific schedule may evolve, but the central experience remains grounded in designing, building, testing, and presenting an autonomous rover.

Families interested in future sessions can explore the Franklin Academy UCI Autonomous Driving Camp for current program and application information.

Additional details about the university partnership and engineering curriculum are available through the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering Franklin STEM Camps page.

The 2026 engineering camp at UC Irvine showed what can happen when students are given the space to experiment, collaborate, and solve real technical problems. From the first design discussion to the final S-shaped course demonstration, every stage helped students build a deeper understanding of autonomous driving and the engineering process behind it.

What did students build during the 2026 engineering camp?

Students designed, assembled, programmed, and tested autonomous rovers. Their projects combined Arduino programming, infrared sensors, motor controls, electronics, mechanical components, and CAD-based design.

What happened during the final rover demonstration?

Students demonstrated how their autonomous rovers navigated an S-shaped route. The demonstration was not a race or competition. It was an opportunity for each team to show how its rover responded to the course and to explain the engineering process behind the project.

What did students learn at UC Irvine?

Students explored autonomous driving, Arduino programming, sensors, electronics, motors, CAD, fabrication, testing, project management, technical communication, and collaborative problem-solving. They also attended university tours, engineering seminars, and college-readiness workshops.

What activities were available to residential students?

Residential students participated in supervised evening and weekend activities such as hiking, sports, an AI workshop, debate, board games, movie nights, reflection sessions, and open lab time.

Where can families learn about future programs?

Families can visit the Franklin Academy UCI Autonomous Driving Camp page for current details about future sessions, eligibility, and applications.