The integrated Team Project is part of a nine-month core on the foundations of systems architecture (SA), systems engineering (SE) and project management (PM). In these projects, teams apply systems thinking and methods on key decisions for the design and implementation of a particular technologically enabled system. These Team Projects run for 4 months, from January to May.
Industry and government organizations are encouraged to pitch a proposal. The proposal should consider a problem rather than an anticipated solution. Not all proposals are selected. Students vote on topics, from which teams of 4 to 5 are formed.
Types of Projects
Projects must involve a technical system to be designed and developed; however, there is flexibility in the type of projects. MIT instructors will work with Partners to refine proposals.
Options include:
- Bringing a promising new cutting-edge technology from the lab to market
- Enhancing an existing product by infusing one or more new technologies
- Proposing a next-generation architecture or assessing threats to the dominant design
Projects should be non-trivial and involve a complex technical system with significant societal, technological, or programmatic challenges. Projects should have a non-obvious answer: projects supporting existing designs with no decision at stake will be less likely to be adopted. Consulting projects, business models, organizational design, process improvement, and portfolio pruning projects are not acceptable proposals.
Partner Commitment
Partners designate one “mentor” as point of contact within their organization who will provide regular feedback. The mentor will coordinate other internal company resources and data in support of the project.
Each team will coordinate with MIT and Partner mentors for regular dialogue and guidance.
Partners are expected to spend a minimum of 28 hours supporting the project:
- 8 hours to participate and up to 10 minutes to pitch each project on January 6, 2025, and (if selected) initial meetings with students Jan 7-10, 2025.
- 1 hour per week supporting students during the term (16 hours total)
- 4 hours to during final presentations for feedback (May 12-13, 2025)
- 1 hour for Company final briefing (May or June 2025)
Team Project – MIT Presentation Events (May 12 and 13, 2025)
By the end of the semester, each team will deliver; (1) a presentation and (2) an executive memo that summarizes their results and recommendations. The presentation from each team will exhibit the framing, design, analysis, and future recommendations for their system including architecture, systems engineering, and project management. A schedule and evaluation criteria for the projects are shown below.
These presentations are the final academic assessment of the teams. Therefore, the sessions will be held in-person only.
Team Project – Partner Final Briefing (May or June 2025)
Since the final project presentations are addressed to MIT’s faculty, Partners set up a separate in-depth briefing by students at the conclusion in May or June 2025. This will allow an in-depth debrief between the MIT team and Partners.
Guidance for Partners
The primary role of the Partner is to provide real-world context, review progress as requested by students, and advise on the relevance of the team’s focus — the “voice of the challenge.”
- Projects are selected, managed, and ultimately delivered by the students; the students have the prerogative to choose where to focus, how to evolve, and what to deliver. We ask that Partners remain flexible as students explore, even if their direction diverges from the initial direction set by the Partner.
- In a university, students may choose an unexpected path, make errors, or simply do a mediocre job earning a lower grade. This academic liberty is important to promote ownership and motivated learning.
- Overall, the experience of past Partners has been very positive, including regular interaction with MIT students, insights from different ways of framing the challenge, and access to the latest techniques in SA, SE, and PM. The team project can stimulate follow-on industry jobs and Partnered research with a deeper dive and research deliverables.
Key Dates
Draft proposals do not need to be complete. All project information should be ready for delivery to the team by January 8th, 2024.
| Draft Proposals Due | December 2, 2024 |
| Integrative Project Showcase – Pitches | January 6, 2025 |
| Intensive Week – Initial Meeting | January 7, 2025 |
| MIT Spring Term | February 3 – May 13, 2025 |
| Final Presentations | May 12 – 13, 2025 |
Complete information on dates and deadlines of the project proposal and process are contained in the project proposal guide below.
Topic Submission Process
Industry, government, and other organizations are encouraged to review the Project Proposal Guide.
Submissions should be formatted as a 1-page PowerPoint slide based on the provided template.
Please use our Project Portal to upload your project proposal as a PDF:
You will need to visit the portal to request an account. SDM will review your contact information, approve your account request, and send you a password. Then you can upload your project proposal to the portal.
For a complete guide to using the project portal and uploading your proposal, please refer to this document.
If you would like to submit a proposal after the updated deadline of December 11, please contact sdm-teamproject@mit.edu.
Information Sessions
SDM will host virtual information sessions for interested project sponsors each fall. The Q&A sessions for 2024 will all happen on November 12 (Tuesday):
- 09:00 to 10h00 Eastern Standard Time (15:00 to 16:00 Central European Time)
- 12:00 to 13:00 Eastern Standard Time (09:00 to 10:00 Pacific Time)
- 20:00 to 21:00 Eastern Standard Time (10:00 to 11:00 Japan Standard Time, of Nov 13)
The sessions are the same in content. We work on accommodating multiple time zones. To join the Q&A session, please register by sending an email to sdm-teamproject@mit.edu and let us know which one works for you.
For specific questions, please contact the project team at sdm-teamproject@mit.edu.