Ignite the spark. Let AI do the rest.
A hands-on AI club at York University where students from every faculty build real AI tools instead of only learning that they exist.
Why we exist
Most students finish a degree knowing AI exists without ever having built anything with it. The distance between what a course covers and what is assumed on the first day of a job keeps growing.
The students who close that distance before they graduate are the ones who stand out. AI Ignite exists to close it for any York student, whatever they are enrolled in.
AI Ignite is a student club at York University. We meet through the fall term to build things with AI tools, not to talk about them.
Two tracks run in parallel under one club. They share community events and finish the term with a joint showcase. You pick the one that matches where you are starting from.
What we are for
Two tracks, one club
Both run in parallel, share community events, and finish the term with a joint showcase. You can switch, and you can come to both.
If you have never written a line
Standalone · 6 sessions
Six sessions, each one self-contained. No code, no prerequisites, nothing to install. Every session opens with a vote, and whatever the room picks is what the room builds that day.
A working AI tool or workflow you built yourself and can use the same evening.
Drop in to as many as you like. Nothing assumes you were at the last one.
If you already code
Sequential · 4 workshops
Four workshops taken in order, all working on one pipeline that grows in complexity each time. What you deploy in the final session is what you started in the first.
A deployment-ready AI pipeline, layered across four sessions, that belongs in a portfolio rather than a demo folder.
Biweekly, and each session assumes the one before it. Come to all four.
At a glance
Who runs it
Founder and President
Executive Vice President
Technical leads, Forge
Technical leads, Spark
Finance
Support management
Faculty advisor
Professor Enas Altarawneh
EECS, Lassonde School of Engineering
Before you ask
Yes. That is exactly who the Spark track is for. Six standalone sessions, no prerequisites, nothing to install. If you can use a browser you can keep up.
Nothing. There is no membership fee, and every tool we use in a session has a free tier that covers what we do with it.
No. The club is registered under Lassonde and open to every York student, from any faculty and any year. Spark sessions are built on the assumption that the room is mixed.
Fine for Spark, since every session stands alone. For Forge you can still come. You will just be picking up a pipeline mid-build, and we will point you at what you missed.
Yes, and some people should. They run in parallel and share community events, so the only real limit is your calendar.
Something that runs. Spark sends you home with a working tool the same evening. Forge ends with a deployed pipeline you can put in front of an interviewer.
Some of us do. A few of the same people build YorkPulse, a community and safety platform for York students that verifies members by yorku.ca email. It is a separate project rather than a club activity, but you are welcome on it either way.