“Vibe coding” is a term that we’ve heard a lot since the rise of AI. Essentially, it has reduced the barrier to entry for getting into programming, as the user commands the AI, which then codes based on the given prompt. While this type of practice has seen a rise among university students and working professionals, something that wasn’t expected was seeing young school students getting into it, too.
With AI becoming accessible to people around the globe, it is also important that the future generation understands its usage too. Keeping the same thought in check, Schoolnet, an edutech company, recently concluded its Ecoinnovators Ideathon 2026 event. Conducted in collaboration with the Global Learning Council, the entire concept of the event was very interesting. Let’s take a detailed look at what went down at the ideathon.
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The students from grades 8 to 12 were given a simple task. They had to find solutions to make the Earth sustainable, using AI. But the interesting thing was that none of them had any prior coding experience or knowledge. All the projects were made by the usage of vibe coding!
Instead of traditional IDEs filled with thousands of lines of code, the presentations showed screens that had natural language prompts. It certainly shows how young students are the early adopters of a new world, where code is a commodity, and human logic is the only remaining bottleneck.
Something that was noticeable during the event was that most of the teams were quite aware of all the AI tools and services popular today. All the projects featured in the event used vibe coding platforms like Lovable, Bolt, and Cursor, and while chatting with the students, all of them expressed how easy it was to use all these tools.
All in all, it is safe to say that thanks to these advancements, the barrier to creating software has disappeared, as long as someone has a vision, all because of vibe coding. Most of these young students told us how they did not interact with raw code much. Their primary interactions were prompting for changes, testing prototypes, and debugging through the dialogue. This shift allows students to focus on “the why” and “the what” rather than “the how”.
Mr. Abhishek Singh, CEO of the IndiaAI Mission, was present at the event too. Given that Mr. Singh has always viewed AI as a tool for inclusive growth, he was delighted to see young students getting around the use of AI too.
He expressed his thoughts at the event and said, ‘The government’s support for such events reinforces our commitment to nurturing India’s future-ready AI talent aligned with the People–Planet–Progress agenda.’
Speaking to Digit at the event, Mr. RCM Reddy, MD & CEO, Schoolnet India, expressed his thoughts on the Ideathon.
He said, ‘The whole objective of this hackathon is that we encourage the students to use technology tools like AI to design apps, software, games, to address any of the environmental challenges like air pollution, waste management, energy conservation.’
Furthermore, he also said, ‘The benefits of such a challenge and competition are that students ride from very engaged, they will have skills, they will have understanding to use technology to solve any of the real-world environmental challenges.’
He explained the scale of the event too, suggesting that over 2000 students had participated in this event. Out of which, 20 were selected for the final round, which was showcased during the event.
The opportunity does not end there for the students, as Mr. Reddy further explained that the winners selected from the competition would be getting a chance to go to Villars, Symposium in Switzerland, this year in June to make a presentation to the global audience.
During the award ceremony, where the winners of the competition were announced, something interesting took place. Usually, when a competition is this tough, naturally, a tiebreaker comes in some sort of way.
However, after considering the ideas of both the finalists, the management decided to announce both teams as winners. This meant that both teams would be traveling to the global event being held in Switzerland. Let’s take a look at both the winning team’s ideas now.
The project, “Snap Trash,” was an app that tackled the lack of guidance in waste segregation. Speaking of their project, the team said it was to empower individuals who have the awareness to dispose of waste but don’t know how to segregate it properly at home.
By guiding users, they aim to reduce pollution. Speaking of the AI tech used in their projects, the team said they used ‘Lovable’ to design the user experience and app logic, while the core AI integration was done with the help of the Google Gemini API.
The other project, “Night Nest AI,” was proposed as a ‘kind’ use for infrastructure. Their idea was simple, as they wanted to convert government schools into safe nighttime shelters for the homeless. Using AI, they explained that they would find safe routes for the homeless and also use it for resource allocation to ensure supplies are distributed based on local needs.
Speaking of their future vision, they explained how they would want to work with multiple NGOs and municipalities and directly with the Government of India to turn their prototype into a reality. Their stack of AI tools included the Gemini API, Firebase, Supabase, and Lovable.
As 2026 unfolds, it is clear to say that for India’s youth, coding is no longer a skill they need to master, largely due to the rise of Vibe Coding. Even with minimal knowledge, students now have easy access to things that were previously impossible.
As seen at the Ecoinnovators Ideathon, most did not have a coding background, but they still managed to build some wonderful projects. Rather than having strong coding knowledge, the winners in the competition had the clearest vision instead.
Also Read: Cursor CEO thinks vibe coding is the biggest threat to modern software
