Skunkworks AI Student Society and Aula

Skunkworks AI Student Society + Aula

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Aula Launches Its First AI Skunkworks!

This October, Aula kicked off something big: our first AI Skunkworks project!

If you’re new to the idea, Skunkworks is our playground for creativity — a space where anyone can pitch ideas, rally a team, and build something together. Think of it as a hackathon, but with more room to breathe, collaborate, experiment, and have fun.

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Teaming Up With Coventry’s AI Student Society

For the first time ever, we teamed up with the brilliant minds from the AI Student Society at Coventry University — a mix of undergraduate and master’s students eager to share their expertise and learn from industry pros. As an MSc data science student and the AI Society Standing President, Douglas Acheampong put it:

“The AI Skunkworks Project with Aula has been one of the most inspiring experiences I’ve had. It all began rather serendipitously; I overheard Professor Jonathan Shaw at The Hub discussing an exciting initiative and felt compelled to introduce myself and the AI Society. Just weeks before, our members had been sitting in the library, animatedly brainstorming how we could make Aula smarter and more intuitive for students like us. That spontaneous connection turned into a collaboration that brought together students from across disciplines, from first-year Computer Science to master’s in AI, Human Factors, and Data Science. It showed how curiosity, creativity, and conversation can spark something truly innovative. More than anything, this project reminded me that when used wisely, AI has the power to create a kind of cognitive convergence, where technology, learning, and human insight meet to enhance education for everyone, and to not dull our cognitive capacity, but to awaken it, ensuring students engage with AI as a catalyst for thought, not a substitute for it.”

Their fresh perspectives + Aula’s product, design, and engineering = the kind of spark Skunkworks was designed for.

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From Ideas to Experiments

We kicked things off with a collaborative Miro board, gathering raw ideas, wish-lists, provocations — anything the students wanted to explore.

Next, the Aula team reviewed every idea through the lens of our Skunkworks framework and our focus on personalisation and the agentic layer. After some discussion, two standout ideas emerged as the most “build-ready.”

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The Build Sprint

Students were grouped into two interdisciplinary squads, each guided by a seasoned Aula Software Engineer, Designer, and Data Engineer. Over three days — a mix of synchronous deep-dives and async building — the squads brought their ideas to life.

In recognition of the hard work from the Society, Aula provided each student with a verified certificate that can be shared in their social networks and added to their CVs.

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🎉 “I’m so glad I was part of this.”

Toluwanimi Agunbiade, one of the participating students, summed up:

“I remember our first AI society committee meeting, when we only had rough ideas — like AI bots — back in January 2025. Now we’ve actually built something! We worked with the Aula team, picked up new skills, and learned how features are made.
I’m so happy I got to be part of this experience. I’m so glad Douglas met Jonathan, and this whole thing came together. Thank you to everyone.”

“This AI Skunkworks wasn’t just about prototyping — it was about community, imagination, and discovery. And the energy in the virtual room tells me we’re only at the beginning.” — Prof Jonathan Shaw, Director of Aula.

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