The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) is the only Hungarian higher education institution to join Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Kiro Students program. The initiative currently covers 132 universities across 18 countries; AWS launched the program in March 2026 with participation from 11 universities in two countries, and since then 121 additional institutions have joined.
What BME students receive
Verified BME students can access Kiro from September 8, 2026, receiving 1,000 Kiro credits per month for a full year. Students register on the Kiro site with their university email address and verify their student status via the SheerID system. No bank card is required to enroll, and there is no trial period attached to the registration.
What Kiro does
Kiro is AWS’s AI-powered development tool that supports the entire software development lifecycle, from planning and requirements definition through coding to the finished application. A key feature is specification-driven development: a user describes in natural language the application or feature they want, and Kiro generates structured requirements, a development plan, and step-by-step tasks. Developers can review and modify steps during the process, so the AI supports a transparent, controllable workflow rather than producing a fully opaque result.
Kiro is accessible through a web browser and requires no installation, allowing use from university computer labs. Users can also create custom AI agents and attach various tools to them; these agents can automate tasks such as monitoring dataset changes, updating code, or performing regularly repeated operations.
Corporate and internal AWS use
The tool is already used by development teams at several international companies, including Siemens, Delta, Ericsson, Rackspace Technology and Mondelēz International. Within Amazon, Kiro has been adopted by teams working on Alexa+, Fire TV, Prime Video and various AWS services.
According to AWS data, the number of developers using Kiro has doubled quarter over quarter, total usage has tripled, and corporate adoption has grown nearly fivefold.
Why this matters for students
A primary goal of the Kiro Students program is to give students hands-on experience with AI-based development tools they may encounter in professional environments. BME students can apply Kiro to university projects, coursework, prototypes and hackathon demos, and to their own software ideas. Larger semester-long projects can be split into smaller, manageable tasks, prototypes can be produced more quickly, and many repetitive development tasks can be automated.
Gianni Romolo, Head of Business Development for Amazon Web Services in Central and Eastern Europe, said: “Hungary has an outstanding engineering talent base of which BME has been a defining part for more than 240 years. Launching the Kiro Students program means BME students will have access to the same professional AI development tools as students at the world’s leading universities, and they can try them on real projects, not just demos.”
Dr. Varga Pál, Associate Professor and head of the Department of Telecommunications and Artificial Intelligence at BME VIK, emphasized: “Our students have always been among the region’s strongest problem solvers. Tools like Kiro create an opportunity to apply that knowledge in real software projects during their university years. This practical experience can be a significant asset when they enter the labour market.”
Access and availability
The Kiro Students program is now available to BME students. Joining requires registration with a university email address, student verification via SheerID, and then activation of the one-year entitlement with monthly 1,000 credit allocations.
