Started as a business program. Outgrew it.
TSA began as a small entrepreneurship cohort. Students kept arriving with real questions in physics, biology, law, business. We stopped pretending one track fit everyone.
About The Start Academy
APPLIEDRESEARCH FORHIGH SCHOOLERS.
Eight weeks. One field of your choice. One mentor who has done the work. One piece of output that can survive a serious read.
How we got here
THE
SHIFT
TSA used to be a business accelerator. The program around it has grown into something broader: research across real fields, with AI and ML as the working tools.
AI changed what students can actually do
With AI and ML in the toolkit, a motivated high schooler can run a real study, build a working product, or analyse data that used to take a lab. We teach that toolkit and pair it with mentors who know the field.
The work has to survive review
Around ten student papers have been published. Some landed in peer-reviewed journals. One reached ISEF in biochemistry. The bar is not effort. The bar is whether someone serious would take the work.
What we actually want to do
Give a small group of students 8 weeks of real research, a mentor who has done the work, and a piece of output they can stand behind. Then keep supporting the ones who push further.
Inside the program
HOW THE
PROGRAM RUNS
Eight weeks, structured around one piece of real work. Students choose the field. Mentors hold the line on rigour. The end of the cohort is not a certificate, it is something a student can show.
Weeks 01-02
Pick the question
Students choose a field and narrow down to a question that's actually answerable in eight weeks. Mentors push back hard on vague topics.
Weeks 03-04
Build the toolkit
Python, the math you need, and the AI or ML methods that fit the question. Not a CS course. Whatever the work requires.
Weeks 05-06
Do the work
Run the study, write the code, gather the data, build the thing. Weekly mentor reviews. Things break. That's the point.
Weeks 07-08
Write it up and defend it
Final paper, project, or pitch. Students present and answer questions. Strong work continues toward publication, ISEF, or launch with ongoing support.
People behind it
THE TEAM
The people behind TSA bring different strengths, but they all care about the same thing: giving students a tougher, more useful kind of education.
Olzhas Mukhtarov
Founder & CEO
Runs TSA. Decides who gets in, what gets shipped, and which mentors stay close to which students.
Alua Nurbayeva
Senior Mentor
Works with students through the messy middle of a project, when the question stops being clean and the work gets harder.
Jamshidbek Nazaraliev
Regional Founder, Uzbekistan
Brings the program to students in Central Asia and runs the local cohort end to end.
Trusted by and connected to
PARTNERS
AND SIGNAL
These organizations are part of the ecosystem around TSA. Some are partners, some are trusted names connected to our work, and all of them matter because students benefit from stronger networks and better opportunities.
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Lumiere Education
Ladder Internships
Young Founders Lab