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Nelson AI Sandbox has teamed up with NMIT to give Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) students the opportunity to collaborate on AI projects that benefit the broader Nelson community.
AI Sandbox is a not-for-profit organisation which provides an unintimidating space in Elma Turner Library for Nelsonians to explore AI and discover its potential.
“At the AI Sandbox, our focus is on building AI capability within the Nelson region,” says Operations Manager Murray Irvine. “Partnering with NMIT has been a natural fit.”
The partnership offers BIT students the chance to connect with industry experts and work alongside them on AI-driven projects, something NMIT Digital Technology Senior Academic Dr Todd Cochrane says gives students a significant advantage.
“The opportunity to undertake challenging, real-world projects creates excellent learning experiences for students,” Dr Cochrane says. “As well as developing their own capability, the projects support the broader goal of enhancing and enabling AI within the Nelson community."
BIT student Bozhi Chen was thrilled to apply what he’d been learning in his course to a real-world setting through an AI Sandbox project involving vibe coding.
Vibe-coding is when a developer chats with an AI bot using natural, conversational language to generate code. This approach involves ‘giving into the vibes’ and embracing experimentation.
It’s a method Bozhi is using to prototype an app generator driven by AI.
“I’m beginning to explore innovative coding approaches to build lightweight agents that write their own actions in code and run them securely,” Bozhi says. “I am combining vibe-coding with large language models to turn my natural language prompts into fully functional apps that are local-first, meaning the data lives on the user’s device, rather than in a server.”
Murray and the team at AI Sandbox have been impressed by the students’ eagerness to innovate.
“The students bring fresh ideas, energy, and technical skills, while industry experts provide guidance, expertise, and context from the field,” Murray says. “That mix is powerful. It accelerates the students’ learning and gives Sandbox projects an extra dimension of innovation.”
“Working alongside experienced developers, I can already see how my contribution is helping the Nelson tech community,” Bozhi says. “It’s giving me a real sense of purpose and building my confidence for a future career in AI.”
For Murray, this sense of purpose and community connection is the heart of the collaboration:
“For us, it’s not just about delivering projects, it’s about building confidence in the next generation of IT professionals and strengthening the bridge between education and industry. It’s been great to see the students involved move from the classroom to creating meaningful projects that will have an impact in Nelson and beyond.”
Learn more about the Bachelor of Information Technology at NMIT(external link).
