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Made by Joel Garcia.
Email at: [email protected] (if urgent, at [email protected])
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This is a wiki written for the purpose of explaining and providing help on how to build a project. My goal with this is not only to write down everything I have learnt throughout the 6 years I have been part of the Edgerton Center, but for other people to be able to contribute. This wiki will include all the steps for the completion of an EDW (or similar) project, providing insight into each specific part of the process.
Please, bear in mind that these are guidelines and each project/program is slightly different. You might have different sections, shorter, longer, etc. Following this exactly for all projects might not work out perfectly. Also, project is a very broad term, but during this guide we will mostly focus on an engineering project (something either physical, like a robot, or something digital, like an app).
At the end of this, we will touch on project and program management, where we will discuss managing and growing a project in case someone is interested and creating a program such as HoPE.
Your journey begins with Ideation, which is the awesome moment where you decide what you want to do. Sometimes this happens spontaneously, where you come up with you want to build or do something and other times, you sit down and decide what to do, like during a hackathon or EDW. After that (and sometimes during it), you should define what exactly you are trying to build. Set some boundaries and some goals!
Next, comes the first time you will actively work on something, where you will create a proof of concept, which should be simple but provide a clear picture of your project. From here, your path is about grinding. You should work on prototypes and have design reviews with mentors and staff who can help you understand what works and what won’t.
By the end, it’s time to present and show the world what you have done!
A Set of Values and Objectives
This section is aimed at providing help structuring a program like HoPE, EDW and others, which have been widely successful at organizing an activity where students get to design, build and prototype their own projects. Every program is different and has widely different characteristics inherent to their region (i.e. Italy is very different culturally of the US).
A guide to Organizing a Hackathon
Running an Engineering Design Workshop
Tools to better organize your team
The Engineering Design Workshop @ MIT Edgerton Center
Hands-On Physics Experience at Liceo “A.Roiti”
(c) Joel Garcia 2026
Email at: [email protected] | Contact at: joelgarciamartin.com/contact
If you want to collaborate and/or help write this wiki, please feel free to contact me!
Special thanks to Chris Mayer for providing feedback and recommendations and to everyone at the Edgerton Center for teaching me how to be an engineer.
Last update on May 2, 2026