Renowned judges from Harvard, MIT, and leading universities will evaluate projects focusing on critical topics such as AI & Climate Change, AI in Education, AI & Military, AI & Work, and Bias in AI. Participants aged 7-18 are encouraged to showcase their innovative ideas.
Stefan Bauschard
Stefan Bauschard
Stefan Bauschard
Stefan Bauschard has been active in speech and debate since 1985, when he first debated in his eighth-grade social studies class. He has helped build debate programs in more than seven countries and co-founded the Harvard Debate Council Summer Workshops, the Georgetown fall and spring tournaments, the Cal Berkeley Fall Championships, and the Silver and Middle School divisions of the Tournament of Champions.
He has taught and directed summer debate camps for more than 20 years, grew the Lakeland tournament in New York from 100 to 1,000 participants, and helped lead the debate community online during the pandemic.
Today Stefan coaches debate at Lakeland schools and develops AI literacy programs for schools and universities. He is the author and editor of two books on education and AI, writes about AI and society at stefanbauschard.substack.com, and can be reached at info@debateus.org.
Zach Bloom
Stefan Bauschard
Stefan Bauschard
Zach Bloom is a co-founder of the Modus Ponens Institute. He holds a Master's degree in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia, where he was awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship for his research on structuralist mathematical ontology.
His academic interests span formal logic, the philosophy of mathematics and metaphysics, along with ethics, epistemology and political philosophy. For over five years he has coached competitive debate, leading students to success at tournaments across North America and China.
At MPI, Zach designs programs including the Ethics Olympiads and the Global AI Debates, and manages a team of instructors in Canada and China. Outside of work, he enjoys skiing, mountaineering and reading.
Archie Stapleton
Stefan Bauschard
Archie Stapleton
Archie Stapleton is a co-founder and director of the Modus Ponens Institute. He grew up in Perth, Australia, studied philosophy at the University of British Columbia, and holds a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, where his work focused on Buddhist philosophy.
A debater since high school, he captained Western Australia's team at the Australian national championships and won the National Mock Trial Championships. He has spent more than a decade teaching philosophy and coaching debate internationally, from championship teams in Shanghai to Buddhist monks in India.
At MPI, Archie runs the Ethics Olympiads, the TKEthics Invitationals and the Global AI Debates, bringing students from around the world into serious conversations about ethics and AI.
Fall 2026 Judges
Jonathan Barry
Priten Soundar-Shah
Priten Soundar-Shah
Director of Policy to Professor Yoshua Bengio and VP of Global Government Affairs and Public Policy at LawZero.
Priten Soundar-Shah
Priten Soundar-Shah
Priten Soundar-Shah
Visiting researcher at the Harvard Department of Philosophy and author of AI & The Future of Education.
Emma Soulanticas
Emma Soulanticas
Emma Soulanticas
Jr. Community Analyst at the Improve the News Foundation, where she leads VerityEd media literacy tools.
John Connor
Emma Soulanticas
Emma Soulanticas
Founder of SuperDebate, a league of local debate clubs and live championships, and a former city-wide varsity debate champion from Chicago.