Momentum

Momentum

Momentum is a hands-on interdisciplinary design course (16.682) offered to first and second year undergraduate students during MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP). 

Founded in 1979, Momentum has a longstanding history in the former Office of Minority Education (OME) as a program to acquaint underrepresented students with "the professional style of the engineer." As Momentum joins the Office of Academic Community, Empowerment and Success (OACES), we are excited to continue the legacy of supplementing hands-on experiences for students who want to get a head start on tackling real-world problems in science and engineering. 

Check back in the fall to apply for Momentum 2027!

Course Specifics

Students are placed in teams and are challenged to use an engineering approach to solve a problem faced by the world today. Throughout the course students receive assistance with resume building, oral presentations, interviewing, and participate in a networking event with industry representatives. 

Momentum is, by design, an intense and profoundly rewarding experience. No prior knowledge of programming or engineering is expected or required to participate.

Momentum Judges

Benefits:

During Momentum, students can expect to:

  • Receive 6 elective units of course credit
  • Obtain hands-on design experience in a team while attempting to solve a real-world issue
  • Receive feedback on their design and implementation from experts in the field
  • Present their solution to a panel of industry judges 
  • Network with industry representatives
Momentum presentation

Momentum is designed to prepare students for a future in the fields of science and engineering. 

Momentum Competition Day

The event culminates in the highly anticipated Competition Day, where participants showcase their projects/prototypes to a panel of corporate and non-technical judges. 

Competition Day is a full day of activities which includes a networking event where students interact with representatives from the OACES corporate partners, known as ACCESS (Advancing Career Connections for Empowerment and Student Success). 

Winners will receive TechCash prizes and exclusive opportunities to connect with our corporate sponsors!

 

Challenge 1 Winning Team

Winners of Challenge 1, Momentum 2026:
Jeremy Propp, Kathleen Yick, Sophia Guerra, Jeanpaul Sanchez-Moreno

Challenge 1: What minimal set of equipment and its associated mass would be required to set up a sustaining presence of humans on Mars from 2075 to 2125?

Sponsor: Blue Origin

Challenge 2 Winning Team

Winners of Challenge 2, Momentum 2026:
Santiago Vega, Deetya Verma, Daniel Pikovskiy, Dustin Wang

Challenge 2: Develop a low-cost, low-mass 1.5-meter deployment boom for a small satellite (smallsat) sensor suite that will be used on an upcoming Blue Origin lunar prospecting mission.

Sponsor: Blue Origin

Wildfire Challenge Winners

Wildfire Challenge Winners, Momentum 2025: 

Amber Brown, ZheYu Jiang, Nina Ruiz-Garcia

Challenge Statement: Investigate use of technology to mitigate wildfires, in particular how to integrate information from various sensing platforms to track and monitor wildfires, as well as potential ideas for enhancing protective gear for first responders.

Sponsor: Lincoln Laboratory