GUIDELINES - What is an embryo MAKE project?

1. Quick description
2. Main objectives
3. Communication guidelines
4. Selection process and budget allocated
5. Other useful information

The MAKE program is supporting different format of project based learning. To see all the categories of projects, go to the project portfolio. One of these categories are the interdisciplinary projects, which are challenging projects pushing students from different disciplines to work together (including prototyping activities most of the time).

Interdisciplinary projects can be proposed by professors or by students. When an idea is proposed by a group of students, usually there are plenty of motivation (most important ingredient for interdisciplinary projects to be successfull). However, other important ingredients are taking more time to put together.

The idea of the embryo category is to provide a group of students (having a project idea) - with approximately one academic year - to streghten their idea by finding the necessary resources and identifying the key challenges.

The embryo category is not accepted for professors since they have already the infrastructure in place to develop project ideas.

The main objectives during the academic year as an embro projects are the following:

1. Having a first contact with the different technicians in the different technical workshops of the prototyping network. These people and resources will be key in futur years when more advanced prototyping will be needed.
2. Actually making a first rapid prototype in order to identify key challenges early on. Rapid prototyping is key to work on a first design, familiarize the students with prototyping and identify key risks and challenges. The idea is not to use expensive materials but to test if the idea is realistic.
3. Recruiting a first team, with students that will endorse managerial roles in futur years.
4. Build a network of different EPFL labs/professors (and their team), with the right expertise, to coach the students in the design of their ideas. For instance, if a group of students wants to build a dog robot it would be key to have the support of the bio-robotic laboratory (expert in animal-like robotics). As the topic of embryo project is interdisciplinary, it is key to contact different labs related to the different disciplines involved. Having the support of labs from different faculties helps to credit students from different sections later on. When contacting labs/professors, it helps to have a first sketch of your idea (can be a design or part of a rapid prototype). It will raise their scientific curiosity and increase your chance of collaboration.

An embryo project is not an interdisciplinary project yet. The idea is to gather information and resources to see if the project is realistic. Therefore, adequate communication must be done to reach the objectives mentionned above.

Here are a few guidelines to follow for students managing an embryo project:

1. An embryo project is not an EPFL project yet, but trying to become one (the trying is important to mention to avoid misunderstandings).
2. You can recruit other students and organize meetings/team building events in the SPOT makerspace meeting rooms. However, larger events involving 50+ students must be avoided, because recruiting large number of students is not the main priority of embryo projects. The idea is to recruit futur managers of the project only. Moreover, big teams are diffcult to manage and it will simply increase the complexity in terms of human resources management. Finally with 50+ students participating in an event, mediacom must be informed and the embryo label is not official so you might run into problems.
3. You can present the idea of the project to EPFL labs and other internal partners (EPFL centers etc). However, presenting the project to industrial partners is possible only under certain conditions:
   1. The project is not an official EPFL project yet. If the MAKE committee refuses to support an embryo project further, the project is likely to stop. It is therefore important to explain the nuance to potential futur industrial partners and the fact that you are trying to become an official EPFL educational project.
   2. You will probably not have a financial structure in place to receive sponsorship. In-kind sponsorship is possible however. Before engaging in any partnership (in-kind or not) with external partners, Julien Delisle must be informed absolutely to support you in the process, ensuring EPFL guidelines are respected.
4. It is advised to work on structuring a futur student association (identify roles of futur president, VP etc..). However, it is not advise to constitute an association during the embryo phase yet. Asking for an official EPFL recognition is not avised either, because it will likely be refused by the student affairs office since you don't have the interdiscplinary project label yet.
5. Interdisciplinary projects (and embryo projects as well) are educational projects before anything else. Their main objectives is to train futur generations of scientists/engineers/architecs to face complex problems and projects. However interdisciplinary projects are not supposed to solve global problems in the industry or in society and it should be presented as such. It is important for futur stakeholders supporting the project to be clear on this aspect in order to manage their expectations.

To be selected as an embryo project, you must contact Julien Delisle for an initial discussion. Julien will evaluate if the project has a potential to become an interdisciplinary project (by identifying if other similar projects exists already or not, if the subject could fit the criteria of the MAKE committee).

If the project has a potential, it will be presented (10min presentation) to a relevant coach of the prototyping network for reviewing the technical feasibility. The presentation will include a few slides presenting the objectives of the project, the timeline of the embryo phase (and further), the organization, a first initial design - if there is one - and any other useful information).

If the coach says that the project is feasible with the existing resources on campus then the project will be recognized as an embryo project for 12 months. The project will be granted:

1. Access to the makerspaces as other interdisciplinary projects (see this guidelines for more details).
2. A small budget of 1000 chf.- to be used in the makerspaces of the SPOT and the SKIL for the next 12 months.
3. A presentation page of their project on the MAKE website.

1. After 12 months as an embryo project, if the MAKE strategic committee refuses to validate the project as an interdisciplinary project, the project will lose its access to the makerspace and the embryo label. See this procedure for more information related to the selection process of interdisciplinary project.

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