Embryo Projects
From the very beginning, students have been at the heart of the MAKE program. The Embryo category aims to provide a group of students with a project idea with one year to develop it and explore its potential. Coaching is offered during the whole year to help students structuring their idea and challenging it. Although the embryo will be dedicated to researching information (state of the art, understanding the problem, identifying user needs) a small budget of CHF 1'000.- is also available if rapid prototyping is required to test the idea.
Following the embryonic phase, an embryo project can lead to different categories of projects, such as an interdisciplinary project, a project for society or an entrepreneurial project.
Learning opportunities
Each embryo project is different and will offer different learning opportunities.
However, most embryo projects tend to offer the following learning opportunities to the participants:
- Building a team from the ground up and identifying key roles in a performant team
- Synthesizing the state of the art around a given subject
- Agile project management skills
- Asking the right questions to develop impactful projects later
- Entrepreneurial skills (navigating inside EPFL, networking, identifying stakeholders)
Each project benefits from the expertise of a group of coaches of the MAKE network.
The main objectives is to build up quality projects that will last in time and benefit the student community (or potentially broader society). Embryo projects can become (after the embryo phase) interdisciplinary projects, projects for society or entrepreneurial projects.
Typical timeline
Embryo projects are lasting maximum a full academic year.
Roles and Responsibilities
Student founders: students play the most important roles in running embryo projects. The objective during the embryonic phase is to assemble a small team of students that could assume leadership roles in the future if the team gets bigger and the project continues.