2.009 gets ’Wild!’

Six teams of mechanical engineering students pitched "wild" products during the annual capstone course prototype launch event. Things got "WILD!" in Kresge auditorium on Monday night - that was the theme for this year's class 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes) senior capstone course, and it's also a great word to describe of the energy of the capacity crowd gathered for the course's annual product prototype launch event. The popular mechanical engineering course, known on campus as "two-double-oh-nine," is designed to emulate what engineers might experience as part of a design team at a modern product development firm. Working with mentors, teams of students are challenged to design, build, and draft a business plan for a product prototype. They're given a budget of $7,500 and just three months to bring their concepts to fruition before pitching to a live audience on MIT's largest stage. The event also attracts a global audience of thousands watching live online. This year's theme invited teams to imagine products that could help end users with a diversity of "wild" experiences - from enabling them to engage more safely in risky sports or activities to creating more freedom from physical constraints.