As summer 2026 has come to an end, 18 studios were completed, the laser cutters and 3D printers have slowed down, and the students moving through our spaces have gone back to school. The quiet in the studio has given us time to reflect on the incredible trajectory of this year and projects built this summer.

Every summer at NuVu is different. From the students, to the coaches, to the studios, we strive to make every summer bigger and better than the last one. But one thing is guaranteed, the buzzing energy at NuVu Studios and at MIT Design studios fills up the space with creativity, collaboration, new ideas, friendships, and memories. This year we welcomed a cohort of almost 250 students across three sessions to our NuVu community, an immense feat for our summer program team.

To welcome our students this year, we spent the year planning our studio curriculums and preparing for the growth by bringing in coaches with exceptional backgrounds to teach a wide array of studios within the themes of architecture, robotics, fashion design, games design, and engineering.

With growing international interest, we relaunched our residential program for high school students to join from around the world and live on MIT’s campus for two weeks at the iconic Simmons Hall dormitory by architect Steven Holl. This expansion gave our students a taste of what it’s like to be a student at MIT in the evenings, while working on projects based on their own innovative ideas during the day. Students explored Cambridge and Boston, and got the opportunity to visit spaces like The Lifelong Kindergarten, and the Personal Robotics groups at the MIT Media Lab, try out Boston staples like clam chowder, and received a talk by one of our original cofounders and entrepreneur David Wang who founded Elemind Technologies. The residential program had an even bigger impact on the unity between the students, and with so many friendships formed, goodbyes were bittersweet.

Students and parents described summer at NuVu as a priceless opportunity. To be able to access coaches with backgrounds from Harvard, MIT, WPI, and MassArt, and be guided by their expert knowledge allowed students to create high level projects. To do so, students bravely explored new ideas, worked on several iterations, failed, and tried again, ending up with rigorous projects ready for a college application portfolio. The purpose of NuVu summer is to give students across middle and high school a welcoming space with a safety net to fail, learn from failure, and try again, and this summer, we witnessed so many aha! Moments in two-week sessions, which are priceless.

“Getting to spend two weeks studying on the MIT campus, learning to use Rhino, watching laser cutters and 3D printers in action, and working through all of the different projects was truly an unforgettable and exciting experience!” – Pop-Up Architecture Student

This year, many favorite studios returned, including Battlebotics, Exploration Rovers, and Bot V Bot, which ended in an epic final match to see which combat robot would conquer. Our very own NuVu High School alum, Ethan Donaldson returned to NuVu, this time as a fashion coach, and brought his expertise to the fashion studios. One exciting studio that was a staple in NuVu Summer in the past, E-Go Karts, was brought back in a completely new and advanced form at the high school program. Our coaches engineering Carlos Lopez from MIT and Cyle Rush from RPI guided students through the process of building functional electric go karts successfully.

This summer came together in such a beautiful way and as we take it all in, we are excited to design our summer 2027 to launch around the end of October, so stay tuned!

We invite you to join our growing community of summer program innovators, inventors, designers, and engineers. Visit our studio, attend a community drop-in, or explore our studios online. Follow us on social media to stay updated on our latest creations, upcoming events, and special promotions.

Thank you for being a part of our story.

For any inquiries, please contact:

Summer Program Director: Sarine Vosgueritchian

Email sarine@nuvustudio.org

Website www.nuvusummer.org

Instagram @nuvusummer