Program 01
Build a product from an idea
over one semester.
Groups of 8 to 12 students who pick a problem and build a product over one semester. No prior experience needed.
What to expect
No prior experience required
Leads cover the basics in the first few weeks. By week four, most members are contributing to the project.
- Team size
- 8–12
- Weekly
- ~4 hrs
- Prereqs
- None
The Semester
How it runs
Apply
Applications open during fall and spring recruitment. One form, a résumé, and your role and case preferences.
Brainstorm
You are placed on a case team. Together you choose a problem and examine it before any code is written.
Build
Engineers, product, and design work in parallel with your leads guiding the technical and product decisions.
Demo
Present at Demo Day in front of judges, alumni, and the other Build Teams.
Roles
Apply for one role
You work with the other two disciplines every week, and the whole team pitches together at Demo Day.
Engineering
You pick the tools, build the architecture for your team's product, and help present it at Demo Day.
Product
Scope the problem, run user interviews, manage the roadmap, and help present the product at Demo Day.
Design
Take the product from wireframe to a finished interface. You handle research, user flows, and visuals, and help present them at Demo Day.
Problem Spaces
Four domains.
Pick the one you can't stop thinking about.
Build Teams are grouped by problem area, not by tech stack. Join the one you care about and work out what to build it with once you know what you're building.
- 01Health TechHealth Tech covers mental health, access to care, wellbeing, sports technology, and accessibility. Past teams have built everything from physical therapy games to neuropathy screening tools.
- 02Digital Arts & MediaMusic, art, media, games. The scope is wide, and past teams have used everything from mixed reality to blockchain depending on what the product needed.
- 03IoTSoftware that moves something physical. We start with ESP boards and Raspberry Pis, but the hardware choice is up to you.
- 04Social ImpactProblems without an obvious business behind them: education, sustainability, civic engagement. The goal is still to build something people actually use.
Recruitment
Ready to build one?
Build Team applications open the first week of each semester. Everything you need is in one form.