Jhon Alexander Echeverri Acosta is a teacher and researcher at the Institución Educativa Comercial de Envigado in Colombia. His work with three public schools in Envigado focuses on integrating Artificial Intelligence into socio-environmental education to address issues of pollution, inequality, and community wellbeing. He is the creator and director of INVENTIPAZ IA, a school-based initiative that applies AI, STEM+H, and Design Thinking to design intelligent prototypes that respond to real environmental and social challenges.

When Echeverri began teaching in Envigado, he faced significant challenges from environmental degradation and school violence to low academic motivation. Determined to connect education with community transformation, he developed the GCA Socio-Environmental Research Methodology, which combines AI tools, scientific experimentation, and human-centred design. Through this model, students analyse environmental data, simulate solutions, and build AI-driven prototypes that serve both learning and local development.

Among these innovations are AI systems that monitor air quality and guide the creation of air-purifying gardens; machine-learning tools that detect mosquito habitats and help reduce dengue cases; devices that transform vehicle smoke into biofuel or ink; and assistive robotic prosthetics designed for people affected by paralysis or landmines. These prototypes turn classrooms into active research spaces where students apply scientific knowledge to community challenges.

Schools participating in the programme have reported an 80% increase in higher education continuation, an 83% reduction in school violence, and a 90% fall in teenage pregnancies. Environmental improvements include a shift in local air quality from poor to healthy levels, a fall in dengue cases from 236 in 2015 to just 2 in 2025, and the reuse of over a tonne of recyclable material each month.

Under Echeverri’s leadership, one of Envigado’s most vulnerable schools has become recognised nationally as a “school of inventors”. INVENTIPAZ IA has received international attention through partnerships with the World Mosquito Program, and Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, and has earned multiple awards including the Best Environmental Practice Award (2023–2025) and recognition from Design for Change (2024). Institución Educativa Comercial de Envigado was a finalist for the World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action 2024. It also won the Santillana and OEI Sustainable Schools Award at the Latin American level.

Through this work, Echeverri demonstrates how AI can serve as a tool for inclusion, sustainability, and peacebuilding. His approach illustrates that when guided by human values, AI can enhance education’s social purpose, enabling young people to become innovators capable of improving their communities and environment.