Ismael Jlioui did not wait to graduate before giving back. He looked at the community he grew up in, spotted a gap, and decided to fill it himself.

Jlioui is a 19-year-old mechanical engineering student at McGill University in Canada and the founder of Bright Labz. Bright Labz is a youth STEM initiative that teaches children aged six to fourteen how to build, program, and test robots. This initiative started as a small robotics program at the Beacons-field Library in 2023. However, it has grown into a venture that has introduced more than 200 West Island families to robotics. This growth is achieved through schools, libraries, summer camps, and community organizations.

The idea came from personal experience. Growing up in the West Island community, Jlioui noticed that hands-on opportunities for children to explore robotics, coding, and engineering were hard to find. Therefore, he decided to create what he had always wanted access to instead of simply wishing things were different

Building Something Real From a Library Room

Bright Labz began with a handful of students and a simple goal: to give younger children the kind of practical engineering experiences that spark genuine curiosity. However, the program has worked with several schools and libraries across the West Island. It also has a growing team of young instructors, many of them engineering students, who deliver sessions in both English and French.

That detail matters. Bright Labz is not just teaching children but it is also giving university students real experience. It helps them apply their technical knowledge in a practical setting. In addition, Jlioui has built a bridge between his engineering studies and his community, and made it work in both directions.

Growing Beyond What Jlioui Imagined

The next major milestone for Bright Labz is a trial day at Collège Beaubois. This is the largest event the program has held to date, with over 70 children already registered. Participants will spend the day building and programming robots themselves. In the process, they experience the hands-on approach that has become the heart of everything Bright Labz does.

For Jlioui, however, the measure of success has never just been about numbers. It is about giving the next generation of young people a real opportunity to learn, experiment, and contribute to something meaningful.

He started in a local library with a few kids and a clear purpose. Today, that purpose has grown into a venture that is shaping how an entire community thinks about STEM education.

His story is a straightforward reminder that you do not need to wait for the perfect moment or the perfect resources to start building something that matters.