Unnecessary disciplinary action against neurodiverse students in K-12 schools isn’t an issue most middle-schoolers think about, much less venture to resolve.

But that is at the heart of John Tucker’s entry into the Presidential AI (artificial intelligence) Challenge: Unity Hive: AI-Assisted Communication Insight and Navigation for Neurodiverse Classrooms. The national challenge "seeks to inspire young people and educators to create AI-based, innovative solutions to community challenges while fostering AI interest and competency,” according to the challenge’s website.

John Tucker got started in 4-H with an embryology project and has been learning about birds and how to care for them.

“There are currently few tools that help educators interpret neurodiverse communication in real time, prevent misunderstandings and protect students from avoidable discipline,” John, 13, wrote in his project narrative. The app’s Communication Insight Engine analyzes emotional tone, intent signals, context, and communication patterns to help teachers understand the meaning behind what a student is trying to say.

Unity Hive also employs safeguards to protect student privacy, John said. The system does not store student names, diagnoses, grades, or disciplinary records. Instead, it uses encrypted student identifiers only available in that instance that are meaningful onlywithin a single classroom context. Data is not shared externally or repurposed.

“Each use is isolated, which helps protect privacy and keep behavior predictable,” said John, who worked for five months creating the program.

Teachers can adjust its interpretation to take into consideration sensory load, background noise and social factors. It even allows teachers to input their own energy level, so the complexity of the app’s response is tailored to the teacher’s cognitive load on a given day.

An example of its use, John said, would be a teacher inputting a brief description of a moment where a student’s behavior felt confusing or stressful.

“Unity Hive would return a few calm, possible interpretations and reflective prompts, not a diagnosis or instruction,” John said. “It’s meant to slow the moment down and support a thoughtful response.”

“The AI doesn’t automate decisions; it gives the teachers options,” he added.

John Tucker is a member of several 4-H clubs in Rowan County, including the West Rowan Explorers, Happy Trails, Grow Getters and Hot Shots.

John has a personal connection to the issue; his little sister has intellectual and autism spectrum disorders.

“I had to help her a lot in her daily life and assist her because she couldn’t do many things on her own,” said John, a 4-H member in Rowan County. “That influenced how I approached my design choices because teachers with neurodiverse students often get stressed, and in stressful situations, they can often miscommunicate with students,” he said.

This miscommunication can have serious consequences. A 2023 investigation by WCNC, a Charlotte TV station, found schools in North Carolina report suspending and expelling students with disabilities, per capita, more than any other state in the country.

“Removing students from instruction disrupts learning, undermines belonging, and accelerates academic disengagement,” John wrote in the narrative for his submission.

Mark Light, Ph.D., 4-H STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) specialist in Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T, mentored John during the creation of Unity Hive.

“He helped me practice how I would answer questions (from judges in the competition),” John said. “He gave me feedback, and honestly, I would give a huge thanks to him, because without him, some of this project might not have been possible. “

Light said the competition shows how AI is useful in solving problems.

“AI can be the tool that helps our youth create and solve problems versus just, you know, copy and paste an answer and claim it as their own,” Light said. AI’s reputation as a way for students to cheat ignores that it is a powerful tool to solve problems, he said.

“That's kind of been our approach with our 4-H AI challenges,” said Light, who organizes the “Game of Drones” competition for 4-H students to showcase their coding skills. “I think John’s project really illustrates that as a good example.”

John said the name Unity Hive captures the idea of shared support. "I was thinking about how bees work together in a hive, each doing small supportive actions that help keep the whole system stable over time,” he said.

John submitted his project in January and will learn in March whether it won the state championship in his category. State winners advance in April to regional competitions, and those winners are invited to Washington for the national finals in May. The winner will be announced in June.

National champions in the middle school category will receive $10,000 per team member per category, a Presidential Award Certificate and access to special web-based resources and other items provided by various organizations investing in AI education.