“Imagine it, build it” at MIT

“The design intent of 2.679 is to empower students to ‘imagine it, build it,’” says Tonio Buonassisi, professor of mechanical engineering. Ultimately, that process, which has twists and turns depending on each student’s project idea, culminates in incorporating the PCB into a device — in a sense animating that device to perform a certain function. “I could consistently come in with no background and come out with practical experience I could use in future projects. Chen, a mechanical engineering major who is graduating early to start a position as a hardware project manager at Formlabs, agrees that the class did just that. "I'm so glad that I've been able to find opportunities in Course 2 that helped give me hands-on, applied engineering experience."