The MIT-AITI project was developed in 1999 by a team of African students at MIT. In the summer of 2000 and 2001, pilot projects were performed at Strathmore College in Kenya. A team of 4 MIT undergraduates taught lessons in JAVA programming, HTML and the basics of UNIX. In addition, leading executives from the computer industry in Kenya delivered guest lectures to students. The knowledge of the students was evaluated through community-oriented projects completed towards the end of their training.

In the summer of 2002, with support from Engineering Information Foundation (EIF), the program was expanded to four schools: Strathmore College and Alliance High School in Kenya, and Achimota High School and Presbyterian Secondary School in Ghana. A total of 14 MIT students traveled to Africa for 10 weeks, and succeeded in teaching a total of 180 students and 10 teachers. The students were given courses in Java, with additional short lectures in JSP, ASP.net, and UNIX. The knowledge of the students was measured through a mid-term and final examination. The summer was a success story for the MIT-AITI, because we were able to expand our reach to additional schools and an additional country. Our efforts yielded promising results to build on in the future.