This document contains a collection of problem domains for final projects that have been suggested by the teaching assistants.

In your final project team formation submission, you are required to select a problem domain. You are encouraged to propose additional domains to add to this document.

Domain #1: Local Community

For your final project, you might use your engineering skills to build software in service of your local community.

A great resource that could power numerous apps is Cambridge Open Datasets, which are released in service of Cambridge’s residents, businesses, and institutions.

Small businesses. You might design a web app to support small businesses in Cambridge. The Economic Opportunity and Development Division in Cambridge is committed to building an inclusive and sustainable economy. Current goals include 1) promoting and strengthening commercial districts, 2) connecting residents and businesses to economic resources and information, and 3) developing programs to empower Cambridge’s residents, workforce, and businesses in order to drive innovation and job growth. You might consider these goals and stakeholders when designing your app.

Local Government. An app might help Cambridge residents become more engaged with their local government. For example, voting is central to our democracy, and efforts to overcome obstacles to voting are essential to improving it. An app could encourage people to vote and help them make informed decisions. Another area is keeping residents interested in and updated about the decisions being made by their local government.

Housing. You might a web app to help Cambridge residents find affordable housing and handle the bureaucratic burdens of applications.

Transit. A web app might help Cambridge residents with their transportation needs, and use real-time data to support various types of transportation, including walking, cycling, public transit, and driving.

Domain #2: Productivity

The Apple or Google app stores abound with productivity apps that promise to solve all your problems, organize your life, and make work fun.

But even as the number of such apps, tools, and notebooks grows, many of us still struggle to be as productive as we’d like to be. Why is that?

You might design a web app for improving productivity. Rather than aiming to solve every problem of every user by creating a generic clone of other apps, you could identify a specific group of users who have a particular productivity need, and design your app to solve their problem.

Fixing video conferencing. In class we’ve discussed various problems in the design of video conferencing apps like Zoom, Meet and Teams. One project would be to rethink the design of such an app, using existing software (such as JITSI) that provides the basic video functionality so that you can work on the conceptual design and user experience.

Domain #3: Healthcare

Digital health solutions have the potential to revolutionize healthcare. Identify a significant problem impacting various stakeholders in the healthcare sector – whether it be patients, physicians, or administrators – and design a system to resolve it.

Problems include:

  • Inefficiencies and errors in managing massive amounts of patient data;

  • Mismanagement of medical inventory and equipment that leads to both supply shortages (which threaten patients’ quality of care) and surpluses (leading to medical waste summing to an estimated loss of $765 million each year);

  • Improvement of existing telehealth solutions, such as those communicating estimated wait times and appointment availability to patients.

Domain #4: Food Accessibility

Hunger affects millions of people around the world, and many here in Massachusetts. Even at MIT, many students suffer from some food insecurity.

Technology might help, for example by connecting people to food pantries, locating food at affordable prices, or managing the distribution of unsold food products.

Domain #5: Education

The edtech industry owes its rapid growth to the pandemic, and it now plays a crucial role in the educational experience. As distance learning has become a new reality, a demand for online learning tools will continue to rise.

Learning apps. You might design a web app that helps people learn new skills. A good example of an edtech web service is DuoLingo that helps people learn different languages. Another instance is Ringle, which is an online tutoring service where college students in the US get matched with people who want to study english. VisualAlgo is also a good example, where they visualize how algorithms work for students studying computer science.

Learning Management Systems. At MIT, we use Websis to register for classes and Canvas to access content specific to our classes. Many use Piazza as a class forum. Some classes also have websites customized to the needs of the course, or use other apps and services such as Gradescope, for the submission and grading of assignments. Lecture recording and playback is now primarily handled using services from Zoom.

These systems, while partly fulfilling the needs of students and teachers, are often clunky and hard to use, and they are poorly integrated. Class teaching staffs often have to augment them with Google forms for feedback and submissions; spreadsheets for keeping track of grades and slack days; and internal staff forums for managing class development and handling student issues. Some classes even build their own software, for example writing scripts for generating repositories, or entire applications for handling office hour queues, and so on.

Domain #6: Security and access

When COVID hit, MIT closed down access to campus, and set up the Tim Ticket system for visitors. Many have found that this has not worked well, and there have been contentious debates about whether campus access should be opened up again.

Some argue that it is essential to the open spirit of MIT to allow anyone in, and that organizing meetings with students and collaborators from other institutions is very hard if they cannot get in easily. Others (especially those working in open spaces rather than offices) have argued to maintain the lockdown, and they are concerned about being vulnerable to unwanted visitors.

Is there a better design for this kind of system? Might there be, for example, a digital version of a “doorbell” in which a visitor could text someone inside the building and get a QR code that allows immediate access?

Domain #7: Creative Arts

Apps can be used to foster artistic creativity; to bring artists and audiences together; and to promote the arts.

You might design a new web platform that connects artists; redesign a music streaming service like Spotify; create a network to promote artistic culture; devise an app that engages users of different ages with the large body of artistic and cultural material available online in the archives of museums and libraries.