Explore. Design. Build.
STEM Innovation Academy is the Orblynx flagship. Students work with real tools, real materials, and the engineering design process to solve problems that have not been solved for them. They design, build, test, break, rebuild, and then explain what they did and why.
Available to students in grades 6–12 through two participation pathways and four innovation areas.
Real Problems. Real Builds. Real Audiences.
Students are not following a demonstration to reach one predetermined answer. They make decisions, test ideas, encounter failure, and determine what to change next.
- Investigate a real challenge with field research and expert input
- Design and build working prototypes with professional-grade tools
- Test, iterate and document like practicing engineers
- Present finished work to families, educators and industry partners
How Every Project Moves
Explore
Investigate a real problem and the people it affects.
Design
Frame a solution and plan the build.
Build
Prototype with real tools; test and iterate.
Communicate
Present the work to a real audience.
Impact
Measure what changed, and what comes next.
Four Frontiers Students Work In
Each area is a real field with real practitioners. Students work in it, not about it.
Engineering & Intelligent Systems
Students wire circuits, program sensors, and build machines that respond to the world around them. When something does not work, and it will not the first time, they troubleshoot it. That is where most of the learning happens.
Regenerative Materials & Bioinnovation
Returns in SummerStudents grow mycelium into solid material, culture kombucha into leather, and turn algae into bioplastic. They test what they have grown, adjust the formulation, grow it again, and take home what they made. A mycelium block takes about a week to grow: students start it, tend it, and come back to a material that did not exist when they began.
Recognized for this work: Loudoun County Environmental Excellence Award (2024) · WUSA-9 Eco Innovation Challenge
Human-Centered Design
Returns in SpringStudents start with a person and a real need. They research, prototype, test with the people who would use the thing, and redesign based on what they learn, building assistive devices and accessible products that solve a problem for someone specific rather than someone imagined.
Sustainable Systems & Future Communities
Returns in SpringStudents model how energy, water, transportation, and buildings work together, then redesign those systems for communities operating under real constraints, including their own.
Two Ways to Join the Academy
Pick the cohort setting that fits your student. Same curriculum, same rigor, same projects. Only the cohort setting, mentorship emphasis, imagery, schedule and registration differ.
STEM Co-ed
Open-enrollment STEM Innovation Academy programs bring students together across schools and backgrounds to build, test, and solve as a team, working through the same Orblynx curriculum and learning framework.
- Open enrollment, mixed cohorts
- Summer and After-School sessions
STEM for Girls
Same curriculum. Same rigor. Same tools, materials, and projects as every other Orblynx experience, in an intentionally girls-only environment built for mentorship, visibility, and leadership.
- Girls-only cohorts built for mentorship, visibility, and leadership
- Summer and After-School sessions
Where the Academy Sits in the Student Journey
The Academy covers Discover and Develop. What students build here is what they take into everything after.
Made in the Academy
“Orblynx has been such an important part of my learning journey because it gave me the opportunity to explore STEM in a way that went beyond the classroom. One of the biggest things Orblynx has given me is the confidence to see myself as someone who can make an impact in STEM and beyond.”
Olivia Nugent · six years with Orblynx, now a college freshmanRobotics & Automation
Mechatronics, autonomous systems and industrial automation engineering.
Biotech & Materials Science
Biofabrication, sustainable materials and regenerative design.
Design & Sustainable Infrastructure
Accessibility and UX design, energy systems and smart-city planning.
Ways to Join the Academy Right Now
Offered as Summer and After-School sessions.
