For Mentors
You’re a faculty member, industry professional, founder, or recent alumnus without a project to hand over. Many of our students propose their own projects (portfolio products, open-source contributions, startup ideas), and every one of those teams must have an approved mentor: someone who validates the direction, keeps scope from creeping, shares career judgment, and opens doors to users, collaborators, or employers. Some partner projects might need one too: when the partner is not technical, a technical mentor advises the team alongside them, and the partner still does the evaluations.
We especially want people who shipped something recently, because students can picture themselves as a mentor who launched a product three years ago, and that mentor’s advice comes from recent decisions. Alumni who started a company or shipped a project are welcome whatever the size of the outcome.
What We Expect From You
Section titled “What We Expect From You”On a student-proposed project you take the project partner’s place, so we expect the same as from a partner; the full list is on that page. In short:
- availability from the start of fall term to the end of spring term (30 weeks);
- at least one hour a week with the team;
- expectations set together with the students in the first sprint;
- two evaluations each term through the surveys we send, a short midterm pulse and an end-of-term survey, using the project partner evaluation rubrics.
As the mentor of a student-proposed project, your evaluation is 25% of each student’s grade each term, the same weight as each of the other three components (grade architecture).
Two things differ for mentors. You don’t need to know every technical detail, because the team comes to you for direction, process, and professional norms. And student-proposed projects rarely carry an NDA, so the instruction team reads the repository directly and your evaluation doesn’t need to verify artifacts.
What We Do Each Term
Section titled “What We Do Each Term”- Before fall term: if you don’t come with a team, look for a project that needs a mentor and fits your interests; share the students’ contacts and project details.
- Every term: send the rubrics through surveys, and stay reachable for any concern about the students or the coursework.
- Throughout: run the assignments that tell you what to expect from the team at each stage.
How to Get Started
Section titled “How to Get Started”Tell us your background, the kinds of projects you’d mentor (web, mobile, data, machine learning, open source, and so on), and any preference on team size or scope. We’ll follow up before fall term starts.
Have a Project Idea After All?
Section titled “Have a Project Idea After All?”Submit it. If you’re unsure it fits, we’ll help you refine it. Submissions close when fall term starts, and a proposal declares whether the project requires an IP agreement, a non-disclosure agreement, or both.