TGA accepts students at the secondary school and university level. We assess readiness against the work — not a rigid age band. If you are unsure whether your student is the right fit, write to us with a short note about their stage.

No. TGA is not a coding bootcamp. Some past Polaris winners had never written a line of code; some had been competitive programmers for years. What we look for is the ability to hold a real question, to reason in public, and to revise under critique.

English is the working language of TGA, including for the final defense. We allow bilingual visual aids (Chinese, Spanish, French, Hindi) inside team posters and prototypes, but spoken defense must be in English. Teams with mixed-fluency members frequently distribute speaking roles accordingly.

Yes. Independent teams of eight, organized by parents or a learning center, are welcome. The application process is the same — you still need an adult lead (a coach or coordinator) who travels with the team.

All teams stay together in cohort housing on or adjacent to campus. Twin or triple rooms by gender. Three meals a day in the cohort dining hall, with dietary accommodations (halal, vegetarian, allergy-aware) confirmed before arrival.

TGA is a young program. Our certificates are verifiable on this site and are issued under our academic partner framework. We are not a "credit-bearing" award in the IB or AP sense, but our records are public and auditable, and university admissions officers can verify any code directly.

Every participant requires signed parental consent. TGA staff complete background checks under Singapore safeguarding protocols, and the cohort operates a strict 1:8 adult-to-student ratio plus the team's own accompanying lead. A full safeguarding policy is shared with accepted teams.

Yes. We do not publish a fixed cap. Each cohort, a portion of seats is reserved for need-based bursaries, which we can extend up to the full program fee for accepted teams from under-resourced contexts. Indicate interest at the Stage 1 expression of interest; documentation is requested at Stage 3.