Projects are 15.990's learning laboratory for exploring and practicing skills, tools, and frameworks. In the test bed of your project, you'll learn as you give and get feedback, build shared commitment, and get results at every step. Even though the class is not designed to tackle all aspects of projects explicitly (no traditional project reporting is due, for instance), your project is sure to benefit greatly!
Wondering if your project would work for 15.990?
Projects for 15.990 should:
- Be team-based. Your project should be substantial enough to support the collaborative work of team of two to five students (not all team members need to take 15.990, but you may find additional team members in the class).
- Involve others. Interacting with multiple stakeholders within an organization should be essential to your project.
- Require invention. Your project should center on a problem that cannot be solved simply by research, analysis, or application of off-the-shelf frameworks.
- Focus on implementation. Your goal should be to make a specific, real, and lasting innovation or change happen, not merely to present ideas. This is a roll-up-your-sleeves opportunity to learn by taking action!
- Matter to you. Projects should address something you care about and are committed to working on.
- Be ready to go. A significant amount of the work on this project should take place in the Fall. Project plans for the class will be finalized within the first two weeks of class, so come prepared to get going!
Don't have a project yet? No worries. Come to class and hear about ideas already in the works that you can join right away.
Project possibilities include:
- Learning from past experience in the $100K competition, undertaken by its student leaders working with their colleagues, past and current entrants, faculty, and staff.
- An internal change project for a student club looking to better institutionalize its best practices for year-to-year continuity.
- Developing and helping to implant a plan for a local non-profit organization to attract and retain participants and to share resources with other organizations.
- Working to make MIT's operations more sustainable, a student team partnered with administration and faculty to generate and test new ideas.