What’s the Big Idea: Team Projects

One of the highlights of IDM’s first year is Project 3. (We know–we’re working on a catchier name, but what do you expect at a school that refers to its buildings numerically.  You can find us in E40.) For Project 3 each student is required to pitch an idea; participating sponsors get to present their idea to the class as well.  In 2019, sponsors included Citi Venture Group and venture-backed Oath Craft Pizza. The students voted and the top 8 vote-getters became formal projects. Teams were formed so that each has a balance of design, engineering, and business expertise. That year’s winning ideas were:

1. Develop a pizza box that keeps the pie hotter and the crust crisper. Oh, and while you’re at it, make the box more environmentally friendly (Oath Pizza)
2. Develop resources for people dislocated by natural disasters (Citi Ventures)
3. Develop approaches to reduce the stress of waiting in high-anxiety environments (i.e., emergency rooms)
4. Create a simpler, more effective system for consistently making a great cup of coffee
5. Enable more female artists (painters, sculptors) to achieve and sustain commercial and artistic success
6. Create a Food Lab inside existing supermarkets to promote non-meat diets
7. Develop products or services to make life for amputees less challenging logistically and emotionally
8. Develop tools to help individuals cope with digital addiction

During final presentations, the audience of MIT faculty, students from around campus, and investors was clearly impressed with aspects of each of the projects. The favorite, though, was the team that developed a new prototype for a pizza box for Oath Pizza. Their box stunned the audience as it

∙ kept the pizza 50% hotter

∙ kept the crust 30% crispier

∙ was dramatically more environmentally friendly*

We’d give you more details about this killer pizza solution, but we signed an NDA.