Srednja Tehniška in Poklicna šola Trbovlje - Slovenia

In the heart of Zasavje, one of Slovenia's most scarred post-industrial regions, a small vocational school has quietly rewritten what's possible in AI education. When the coal mines began their final closure in the 2000s and the heavy metal industry scaled back, Trbovlje lost more than jobs, it lost identity. The region still carries some of Slovenia's highest suicide rates and growing youth anxiety. Yet inside Srednja tehniška in poklicna šola Trbovlje (STPŠ Trbovlje), a bold mission took hold: to move the community "from coal mining to data mining."

Under the leadership of Dr Uroš Ocepek — Global Teacher Prize 2023 Top 50 finalist and widely recognised as the first teacher to systematically embed AI into Slovenian schooling, STPŠ Trbovlje became, in 2018, the first and only Slovenian school to introduce a compulsory subject dedicated entirely to Artificial Intelligence. Students learn Python, Orange Data Mining, large language models, real datasets and ethical reflection, working at a level far beyond typical secondary education.

The results speak loudly. Since establishing its ComLab in 2016, the school has produced 16 award-winning innovations,12 co-created with students. Highlights include tRSiCA, an adaptive learning recommender (Silver, GZS); BCI-Painter, a brain-computer interface art installation (Gold, national recognition); NeuroFly, a VR-BCI flight simulator showcased at Expo Dubai 2020 (Bronze); KemBitja, an AI-generated chemistry card game (Gold); Trboveljski valček, the first Slovenian waltz composed with AI; and MR-Penguins vs Pasosaurs, a mixed-reality drug-prevention game grounded in real wastewater-analysis clustering data (Gold, two Krka Awards, Best Young Minds).

Twelve students have earned official "innovator" status from the regional chamber of commerce, some as young as 15. Built on the mission to give students a stage, the TRiii conference, now in its tenth year, has welcomed over 3,500 visitors and more than 100 student keynote speakers, drawing educators from Norway, Iceland, Turkey and Kazakhstan. This year, the school's first former student completed a PhD in Artificial Intelligence.

Ethics sits at the core. A 2020 school-wide AI policy governs data minimisation, transparency and responsible generative-AI use. Every project includes an ethics note. Dr Ocepek has delivered over 70 public lectures, trained 20+ school teams, and contributed to the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts' national roundtable on AI in education.

The school also uses AI as an equaliser. Orange Data Mining's visual workflows open machine learning to students who struggle with mathematical notation; generative tools scaffold learning for those with language or attention gaps; KemBitja transforms chemistry for reluctant learners.

Enrolment tells its own story: from 290 students in 2013 to 460 today, drawing from 13 municipalities rather than three.

Prize funds would renew the decade-old ComLab or, at $500,000, convert an unused attic into three learning studios, a student-startup hub and a TRiii auditorium, opening the doors to primary schools and children with adapted programmes across the region.

Where others saw an ending, STPŠ Trbovlje wrote a beginning.