---
title: Micro Challenges
page_type: course
track: Instrumentation
course_type: Wrokshop
feature_img: /assets/images/2024-25/year-1/t-2/challenge.png
img_caption:
faculty:
    - santiago-fuentemilla
    - ella-suzanne
    - pablo-zuloaga
    - mikel-llobera
    - didac-torrent
    - adai-surinach

ects: 2
---

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## Syllabus

Students arrive at the program with diverse levels of technical expertise and individual research interests, which form the foundation of their evolving areas of investigation. A key objective of this challenge is to align hands-on making with the students’ current technical knowledge, ongoing research, and communities of practice, fostering the development of interventions that are contextually situated and meaningful.

Central to this approach is empowering students to engage deeply with prototyping within the Fab Lab environment, demystifying technological “black boxes” and fostering a nuanced understanding of technology as a tool for designing emergent futures. The Fundamentals of Digital Fabrication course has laid the groundwork for students’ fab literacy, equipping them with essential skills and conceptual tools for digital fabrication. Building on this foundation, the current term will expand into new areas of knowledge and practice, including biomaking (living materials), collective intelligence, human-computer interaction design (HNMI), and extended intelligences (AI), as part of the Exploration track.

This alignment requires methodologies that balance the demands of a multidisciplinary academic journey. In this iteration of the course, new instructional strategies such as “rotational task stations” and monthly intensive maker-sprints (or “micro-challenges”) have been introduced. These micro-challenges enable students to collaboratively apply their knowledge and skills to short-term, project-based interventions, synthesizing concepts from previous coursework with the frameworks and themes of MDEF.

**The Microchallenge is an intensive week where students will apply the knowledge, concepts, and skills acquired in previous weeks through group projects aligned with their research interventions.**


### Key Elements

Duration: 30 hours in total.
- 12 hours of autonomous work (o.w.).
- 2 hours of Final presentation (f.p.).

Working format: In pairs to encourage collaboration.

Documentation and dissemination:
- Each team member must create a post to share insights.
- And a repository (Repo) to store and document their process and outcomes.

## Keywords
Prototyping, Co-creation, Iterative Design, Digital Fabrication, Open Source Documentation, Collaboration, Critical Making, Intervention Design, Systems Thinking, Experiential Learning, Problem-Solving


## Learning Objectives

The intensive week is designed to enhance students' ability to develop and document innovative projects through collaborative and iterative processes. The key learning objectives include:

- Project-Based Learning & Prototyping
- Self-Led Research, Community & Artifact Alignment
- Iterative Thinking & Problem-Solving
- Open Documentation & Knowledge Sharing
- Collaboration & Teamwork
- Critical Thinking
- Iterative Design

## Schedule

![schedule](/assets/images/2024-25/year-1/t-2/challenge_schedule.png)


## Deliverables / Outputs
At the end of the Microchallenge, students must submit two key deliverables to document their learning and project development:

**Individual Post**

Each student will write a reflective post based on personal questions, capturing their learning experiences and individual contributions to the challenge. This will serve as a self-assessment and a way to share insights with the broader community.

**Project Repository**

Each group of two (or more) students must create a new repository to document the entire development process of their intervention. This will include research, prototypes, iterations, and final outcomes. The repository should be hosted on Hackster.io or a similar platform.

### Submission Deadline:
All documentation must be submitted by Monday after the challenge week to ensure proper reflection and sharing of the process.

## Evaluation Strategies 

- Only the documentation into their webpages will be taken in account for evaluation.
- The weekly standards and grading will be presented during the weekly classes.

The assessment of the Microchallenge is based on four key areas, ensuring a balance between academic rigor, documentation quality, engagement, and creativity.

- Academic Level (30%) – Assesses the quality and complexity of the designed prototype, code, or artifact.
- Open Content (35%) – Evaluates the clarity and detail of documentation, including media such as photos, videos, and text.
- Involvement (30%) – Measures attitude, motivation, and proactive behaviors throughout the process.
- Explosion (5%) – A playful yet impactful category rewarding boldness and innovation—as long as it does not literally explode! 🚀

## Materials Needs 

All materials needed for the course will be provided by the faculty. The students are required to bring to the classes their own students toolkit and the programming boards given to them at the start of the academic year, other development boards, sensors and actuators will be provided during the classes. Bring in your laptop with the proper software installed prior to the class if required (emails will be sent prior to the classes regarding this aspect).


## Resources

- [Microchallenge legacy](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RoIVwWUJukrAahuDsRjvr_WYvNp-9rfjk6qGn9mY8bo/edit?gid=387471898#gid=387471898)
- [Miroboard - Challenge I](https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVLko8tfU=/?share_link_id=777421167048)
- [Miroboard - Challenge II](https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVIcReVQI=/?share_link_id=879086890237)

## Faculty

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