“Sandbox is designed to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be more effective when they go off in the world and practice MIT’s brand of deep scientific and technological innovation,” said Ian A. Waitz, dean of the MIT School of Engineering. (Image courtesy of Christopher Harting/MIT.)
A new, institute-wide program at MIT aims to support student-initiated projects with tailored educational programs, mentoring opportunities and funding ranging from $1,000 to $25,000.
Called the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program, or just “Sandbox” for short, the program will help graduate and undergraduate students nurture an idea, a new technology, a specific start-up project or the next moonshot.
The program is being led by MIT’s School of Engineering, in partnership with the MIT Innovation Initiative. The Sandbox program will also collaborate with existing campus organizations, including the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, among others.
“We expect Sandbox to grow with participants as their ideas take shape, helping with resources, mentors, teammates, guidance as to next steps and connecting them with educational opportunities to advance their ideas,” said Jinane Abounadi, executive director of the Sandbox program.
“The program can meet the growing interest among students looking for a better way to engage with the MIT innovation ecosystem, at all levels, and thereby create a more diverse population of innovators and entrepreneurs,” Abounadi added.
The program is specifically designed to be flexible and synergistic with MIT class work and research, and will support its student participants throughout their time at MIT. Proposals accepted by the program will be accompanied by milestones and co-curricular requirements tailored to the needs of the individual student or team. All participants will also be matched with mentors from both local and non-local alumni networks.
Because this program is multidisciplinary and open to all students at MIT regardless of program or faculty, the Sandbox program provides great opportunities for engineering students to partner with non-technical disciplines in order to realize their innovative projects.
“The primary aim of Sandbox is to develop people, not necessarily start-ups or products, but the learning will be in the context of advancing an entrepreneurial venture or innovative idea — one that serves an important market or social need,” said Ian A. Waitz, dean of MIT’s School of Engineering and the originator of the program.
“It is designed to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be more effective when they go off in the world and practice MIT’s brand of deep scientific and technological innovation.”
For more details on MIT and the Sandbox Innovation Fund Program, visit the program’s website.