Multi-Tier Mentorship with AI-Assisted Development: Authentic Engineering for K-12 and Undergraduates

arXiv:2608.19379v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: K-12 students often possess creative engineering ideas but lack technical skills to build them, while undergraduates have coding expertise but few opportunities to lead real-world projects or mentor others. The rapid development of AI-assisted tools offers a potential bridge to connect these groups, yet the structure for effective K-12 and university collaborations remains underexplored. This paper introduces a multi-tiered mentorship framework ena