RBC Borealis Let's SOLVE It AI Mentorship

RBC Borealis, the AI research centre founded by Royal Bank of Canada, pairs teams of three to five undergraduates at Canadian universities with its own machine learning researchers and engineers for a free two-month mentorship, to turn an idea for using AI on a community problem into a working proof of concept. The fall 2026 cohort runs from October 5 to December 10, adds a new stream where selected teams tackle real needs from RBC Borealis's nonprofit partners, and ends with a Presentation Day at its offices. You do not need to study computer science or know machine learning already: one teammate with an introductory programming course is enough.

What you get:

• An RBC Borealis team member as your team's mentor, meeting you for 30 minutes every week and helping you shape your machine learning proposal and your career plans
• Access to RBC Borealis machine learning researchers and engineers, and the chance to build contacts in the AI industry
• Technical guidance from your mentor, plus training through a curated selection of public resources for learning machine learning and programming, and workshops scheduled during the programme
• A Presentation Day at the RBC Borealis offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, where your team presents its project to the RBC Borealis team
• Work you can show: a public code repository, a presentation and a one-page report, with an optional white paper and a blog post with RBC Borealis if your project is selected
• It is free to take part

What you'll do:

• Apply as a team of 3 to 5 undergraduate students; individual applications are not accepted
• Every member must be enrolled in an undergraduate program at a Canadian university for Fall 2026, shown by a latest transcript or a letter of acceptance
• Any program of study; teammates can come from different programs and different Canadian universities
• At least one member must have taken an introductory undergraduate or high school programming course; machine learning knowledge is not required
• Each member must be able to give 10 hours a week from October 5 to December 10, 2026, including one 1-hour team meeting and one 30-minute mentor meeting each week
• The team needs at least 2 consecutive hours in common, Monday to Friday between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm Eastern
• All members must attend the virtual Welcome Day (early to mid October) and Presentation Day (early to mid December)
• Students living in Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo or Montreal must attend at least one in-person meeting at the RBC Borealis office in their city, and students within a 3-hour commute of the Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal offices must present in person on Presentation Day
• Students currently outside Canada can apply if enrolled at a Canadian university and able to attend the meetings and events
• You can apply with at most two different teams
• Application: a 500 to 1,000 word project proposal (a second proposal is optional), plus each member's contact details, education, computer science skills and proof of enrolment; resumes are optional. The form cannot be saved once started