Read the latest articles from our Fellows

Use factor model to predict stock return and evaluate our predictions on stock returns.

molecular-biology, crispr-cas9, grna-and-primer-designing, pcr-analysis

In this Build Project you will use factor models to predict stock returns. The project is an example of quantitative finance field, where people utilize the skill of data analysis, statistics and programming to predict stock return and make investment decisions. You’ll learn to handle data using Python and get a solid introduction to forecasting in finance. The project covers important basics like data analysis and applying factor models. Completing it will gear you up for entry-level finance and data science jobs, which are key roles in many U.S. industries. This is a great start for students aiming for a future in the financial sector.

physical-life-science

Precision Guide Quest: Designing and Optimizing CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing Strategy

Harshi Gangrade

In this Project, students will focus on designing and optimizing a CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing strategies for a specific target gene leading to a comprehensive report on a plan for successful gene modification.

Molecular Biology Fellow

Embark on Precision Guide Quest! CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing revolutionized the biotech industry with its precise and versatile approach to modifying DNA. This technology utilizes a guide RNA to direct the Cas9 enzyme to specific genomic locations, where it induces double-strand breaks that can be repaired to introduce desired genetic changes. CRISPR/Cas9 has become indispensable in various industries, particularly in biomedicine, agriculture, and biotechnology, due to its ability to precisely edit genes, model diseases, develop novel therapeutics, and improve crop traits. Its efficiency, affordability, and scalability have propelled it to the forefront of genetic engineering, promising breakthroughs in treating genetic disorders, enhancing crop resilience, and advancing personalized medicine.

In this Build Project, you will create a meticulous gene editing strategy using CRISPR/Cas9 for a specific target gene crucial in disease research. You will design guide RNAs to precisely direct the Cas9 enzyme to the desired genomic location, enabling them to induce precise genetic modifications. Additionally, you will explore and select optimal delivery methods to introduce the CRISPR/Cas9 components into target cells or organisms, ensuring efficient editing while minimizing off-target effects with the insights in in vivo studies. Through critical thinking and problem-solving skills, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of CRISPR/Cas9 editing strategies and gain valuable skills applicable to the biotech industry. You will be creating a pitch deck at the end of the project which will showcase your skillset with a flow of understanding and skills learnt in this project which are the gateway to the coveted roles in the biotech industry and will act as a catalyst for a rewarding career at the forefront of genetic innovation!

engineering, computing-data-science

software-development, full-stack-development

Build a Map Dashboard to Visualize Geographical Data

Shubham Sankhe

Use ReactJS to develop a Map Analytics tool that presents data in visual format.

business, computing-data-science

Full Stack Engineers are trained to deal with challenges across the entire application, from user experience issues to database optimizations. This problem-solving ability is crucial for entry-level IT professionals who need to quickly address issues and find effective solutions. You'll wear the hat of a Full Stack Engineer and develop a Frontend Map Analytics tool using ReactJS. You'll become familiar with React Mapbox project, as well as gain a strong foundation in React development and map integration. Maps are a powerful tool for visualizing complex data sets that have a geographical component. Full Stack Engineers can leverage map analytics to display data points, trends, patterns, and relationships - making it easier for users to grasp insights. Building on this foundation, you may naturally explore and learn additional technologies and concepts that complement your skills and expand your capabilities. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real Full Stack team.

renewable-energy, community-solar, business-intelligence, data-analytics, google-sheets, bigquery, tableau

Analyze Solar Projects Development to Inform Business Expansion

Pavel Shteling

Perform an analysis of Interconnection Queue data to drive renewable company expansion strategy.

Business Intelligence Fellow

To understand which markets to focus on in the future, Ampion needs to analyze open-source data provided by power grids called Interconnection Queue. Ampion is one of the industry leaders in Community Solar, providing opportunities to participate in shared solar projects through a concept called Community Solar. Through a software platform, Ampion connects residents, businesses, and other types of consumers with clean energy facilities, primarily Solar Farms. Interconnection Queue is a compilation of power generation and transmission projects seeking connection to the power grid. In this Build Project, you'll wear the hat of a Data Analyst/Business Intelligence Analyst and perform an analysis of Interconnection Queue data to drive Ampion's expansion strategy. Under the supervision of an experienced Project Leader, you'll become familiar with Structural Query Language (SQL), which is used by thousands of companies for communicating with and manipulating databases. You'll also learn how to translate big data into a visual story using Tableau, another tool popular in the industry. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real Data Analytics team.

software-development, gaming-development, visualization

Develop an Interactive Web-Based 3D Visualization Tool

Qiaodong Cui

Use WebGL to create a web page that allows users to visualize and interact with 3D objects.

In the rapidly evolving field of software development, the challenge of creating real-time, appealing visualizations and simulations is a critical industry demand (particularly in areas like gaming, virtual reality, and data visualization). In this Build Project, you'll wear the hat of a Software Engineer and develop interactive web-based graphics tool for visualization of 3D models. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you'll design and implement user interfaces, optimizing graphics rendering performance, and integrating various types of data sources for dynamic visualization.

microsoft-excel, financial-modeling

Build a Working 5-year Financial Model

Dana Rakhimzhanova

Analyze organic growth potential of a publicly traded company.

In this Build Project, you will wear the hat of a Corporate Strategy Team Leader and will be asked to analyze the organic growth potential of a publicly traded company. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you will learn how to look at a company’s financial statement, how to do an industry analysis and how to come up with reasonable assumptions to project accurate growth. You will become familiar with financial modeling techniques that are widely used across a variety of firms in any industry. This work is very common in the roles of financial analysts, senior financial analysts, corporate finance analysts and many others.

finance, business-intelligence, financial-data-analysis

Visualize a Financial Analysis with Power BI

Petr Miko

Use Microsoft Power BI to create a dashboard that conveys a company's financial wellbeing in a visually appealing form.

Data is considered one of the most valuable assets that any business owns. Companies that proactively collect and analyze data make more informed decisions and are more likely to succeed. In this Build Project, you'll wear the hat of a Financial Analyst and investigate the financial well-being of the company of your choice. To support your analysis, you'll develop an interactive dashboard using Microsoft Power BI. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you'll analyze data from FP&A teams, Financial Statements, and online sources to uncover insights that will inform our financial strategies and drive informed decision making. You'll become familiar with industry tools such as Power BI and Excel and learn methodologies like quantitative and qualitative analysis. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real Financial Analytics & Strategic Initiatives team. This type of work is quite common in the industry, and having experience in Financial Analysis will benefit you when applying for entry-level jobs in Finance.

scraper, node-js, web-inspector, robot-txt

Build Your Scraper: Collect Reusable Data From Any Website

Dennis Lim

Learn how the web utilizes the HTTP protocol to transfer HTML pages and how to build a scraper that collects structured information from any website.

These days, many companies provide daily-changing information on their website, but it could be a tedious job to collect them every day. The ability to create a scraper helps you get valuable data from static or dynamic websites. In this Build Project, you will gather and structure data from any public website without relying on external data APIs, allowing for time series analysis or monitoring recent information. Data ownership is crucial, so we will also cover the importance of robots.txt to prevent legal issues.

python, sql, statistics, problem-solving, teamwork, apis, large-language-models, artificial-intelligence, open-source

Uncover Product Reviews Using Fine-Tuned AI-Powered Classifier

Laura Tociu

Using a suitable training set, train a Large Language Model classifier to find product reviews among user comments and determine their sentiment (positive, negative or neutral).

Data Science Fellow

User comments are the data fellow's company website's most unique and valuable asset;they provide more genuine and honest opinions on products than most anywhere else on the internet. However, not all of the comments are useful, as there is also banter, trolling and off-topic discussions. While ChatGPT can identify and classify product reviews extremely well, it is costly and time-consuming to use it for every new comment posted on the website. Instead, a Large Language Model (LLM) fine-tuned for this specific task can perform this task quickly, offline and at a fraction of ChatGPT.

In this Build Project, imagine you are part of Company X’s team and it’s your responsibility to solve this challenge. You will train a Large Language Model (LLM) classifier to surface product reviews from among the large body of comments on Company X’s deals and perform sentiment analysis on them.

physical-life-science

chemistry, biology, chemical-engineering, bioengineering, physics, materials-science, entrepreneurship, venture-capital

VC Project: Develop Competitive Analysis of a Science Startup

Vera Schroeder

Conduct a competitive analysis of a science-based startup we are actively considering to invest in.

Chemistry Fellow

When making an investment in a startup, it is essential to understand its competitive landscape. We need to understand other companies that are conducting similar research and product development. In this Build Project, you'll wear the hat of a Venture Investor and investigate the competitive landscape (technology and products) of startups. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you will review academic publications underpinning the innovation, conduct sector research, and conduct a competitive analysis. We will focus on the areas including energy storage, carbon capture, 3D printing, green construction materials, microbial fermentation, and drug delivery methodology. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real technical investing team.

python, machine-learning, pytorch, hugging-face, generative-ai, computer-graphics, creative-coding

Coloring 3D Objects Using Generative AI

Pablo Wiedemann

Learn how to use modern AI image generators to color and stylize 3D objects through text prompts.

Computer Science Fellow

Generative AI is currently one of the most in-demand skills across multiple industries. As this technology continues to spread across a wide range of fields, the demand for professionals with experience in generative AI is only expected to grow. An area of particular interest is the intersection of computer graphics and generative AI. Can we utilize generative AI to create/edit 3D content? This holds significant potential for industries such as video games, digital architecture, e-commerce, and AR/VR.

You'll wear the hat of a Junior Machine Learning Scientist and leverage generative AI models to enhance 3D digital objects. You will use advanced technologies like "ControlNet" and the "Segment Anything Model" to generate and apply new colors and textures to 3D models. You will also become familiar with industry-standard tools such as Google Colab, PyTorch, and Diffusers.

physical-life-science

business, biotechnology, medical-devices, data-visualization, market-analysis, competitive-analysis

Identifying the Best: Competitor Analysis for a Medical Device

Ariel Seidner

Compare key qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Adipose Tissue Filtering Devices produced by Sientra and its competitors.

Material Science Fellow

Companies working in the Medical Device industry always invest in developing new products and improving existing solutions. In this Build Project, you'll wear the hat of Research and Development Engineer, and prepare a comparison of competitor devices for a new branch of products that have been developed by a medical device company. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you'll present all information collected in a visually concise and informative way to help give insights on next steps for the product family. You'll improve your research skills and become familiar with public scientific and medical archives like NIH. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real research and development team.

financial-modeling, microsoft-excel, data-analysis, aviation

Develop a Budget for an Airline’s Inflight Group

Nidhi Trambadia

Prepare multifaceted financial analysis to plan operating expenses for an airline’s Inflight department.

materials-science, materials-engineering, sustainable-metal-production, high-temperature-inorganic-chemistry, ferroalloys, chemical-metallurgy, zero-carbon-emissions

Just like in our personal lives, budgeting for an organization is an important process that entails excellent communication, analytical and personable skills. In this Build Project, you’ll wear the hat of a Financial Analyst and prepare a reasonable hypothetical budget for an airline’s Inflight group. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you'll develop multifaceted financial models and conduct analysis with tools most commonly used in the industry: Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. You'll also become familiar with aviation terminology and advanced modeling techniques like block hours/staffing and Excel model ‘dials’, respectively. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team.

engineering

Prepare a Research Proposal on Sustainable Metal Production with Zero-Carbon Emissions

Peace Kim

Prepare a research proposal on sustainable metal production with zero-carbon emissions – and get a chance to actually make a piece of ferroalloy.

Materials Engineering Fellow

One of the biggest problems in modern extractive metallurgy is the recycling and re-mining of bauxite residue (a.k.a red mud). Bauxite residue is treated as a hazardous by-product in the aluminum industry, but it's still full of untapped strategic metals which are critical to the defense, automotive, electronics and biotech industries. In this Build Project, you will assume a research/development role and will be tasked to suggest novel chemistries for our team’s challenge. Under the supervision of an experienced Build Fellow, you will apply materials thermodynamics and kinetics to design alloys, slags and electrolyte systems of relevant chemistries. This project will give you a soft introduction to metal production and the exciting world of sustainability-focused startups. In the end, you will taste the spirit of being an awesome materials (or metallurgical) engineer and be able to describe process flow diagrams (PFDs) including key metrics of your suggested chemistries and methods. During the project, you will become familiar with industry-standard tools and techniques: Ellinghams diagrams, various phase diagrams related to metals, oxides and halides systems, kinetic models, metal production techniques, etc.

digital-marketing, content-marketing, artificial-intelligence, marketing-automation

Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy for a Business of Your Choice

Teena Minhas

Propose how a business of your choice can use multiple digital marketing channels to grow their audience.

Market Research Fellow

In this Build Project, you'll wear the hat of a Digital Marketing Expert and design a digital marketing strategy for a business of your choice. Under the supervision of an experienced Project Leader, you'll identify target audiences, choose appropriate marketing channels, and prepare a report with your recommendations on the promotional strategy. You’ll gain solid understanding of the Kahn Retailing Success Strategy and omni-channel marketing (including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and email marketing). All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real marketing team.

computing-data-science, business

software-development, apis, frontend

Marketmate: Your Personal Stock Sidekick

David Abadi

Track and analyze stock market trends with a web platform.

Computer Science Fellow

The project will offer real-time and accurate monitoring of financial assets in today's dynamic and fast-paced markets. With the constant fluctuations in stock prices and market trends, it has become increasingly crucial for businesses and investors to have a comprehensive tool that can seamlessly track and analyze stock performance. You will gain hands-on experience with APIs, user input and output, data visualization, API building and many other technologies that will help develop your career as a Computer Systems Engineer.

figma, adobe-illustrator, adobe-photoshop

Design the Brand of an Upcoming MOMA Exhibition

Luisa Rios

Analyze an artist’s work to brand an exhibition for their upcoming MOMA showcase.

Graphic Designer Fellow

Imagine you are hired by MOMA to brand an artist’s 6-months long exhibition. Your task is to deliver an identity for the exhibition, creating harmony between imagery and typography: the logo, poster, brochure, and magazine. You should 1) pick an artist and analyze their artistic personality in their work; 2) Create a mood board with your findings and propose your branding offer; 3) Create and deliver the physical assets outlined above. Closely working with various types of clients and gaining an in-depth understanding of project requirements, and clearly communicating them are essential parts of graphic design. In this project, by analyzing an artist’s process, work, and inspiration, not only you’ll be exploring different artistic views and styles but also, you’ll be able to bring this to your daily practice as a graphic designer - who better to be inspired by than artists you love?

technology-startups, investing, finance, excel-modeling, financial-modeling, venture-capital, investment-banking, entrepreneurship

Tech Finance Fundamentals: Investing in Tomorrow

Alice Ballard-Rossiter

Master the essentials of tech investment and financial analysis with a hands-on project, from analyzing market trends to pitching a startup.

The rapidly evolving tech industry presents unique challenges and opportunities for investors. With technology firms increasingly dominating financial markets, understanding how to evaluate and invest in these companies is crucial. In this Build Project, you'll step into the role of a Financial Analyst. Under the guidance of the project leader, you will analyze a tech company's financial performance and market position, then pitch a new startup for investment. You'll gain hands-on experience with industry-standard tools and methodologies like Excel for financial modeling and market analysis. This project simulates the fast-paced environment of a real venture capital firm, offering a valuable glimpse into the world of tech finance.

excel-modeling, financial-data-analysis, financial-research, securitization-technology

Launch a Space Finance Program: How Securitizations Will Drive Space Travel

Florian Georg

Gain a practical understanding of structured financial products by engaging in the modeling and calibration process using Excel. This project offers a comprehensive learning opportunity, combining theoretical knowledge with practical application, empowering students to navigate the complexities of structured finance with confidence and proficiency.

Are you intrigued by the dynamic world of finance, where decisions made today can shape the economies of tomorrow? Welcome to our space finance project, where we dive deep into the intricate mechanisms of securitized financial markets, investment strategies, and risk management techniques. Embark on a journey that challenges your intellect and sharpens your analytical skills as we explore topics ranging from capital structure optimization to rating agency arbitrage. Through hands-on exercises, real-world case studies, and collaborative discussions, you'll gain invaluable insights into the principles that drive global financial systems. Whether you're a seasoned enthusiast or just beginning to explore the world of finance, this project promises to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the complexities of today's financial landscape.

Under the supervision of an experienced industry expert, you'll learn how financial analysts assess risk and investors decide where to put their money to work. You'll become familiar with Excel modeling, scenario analysis and the structured products methodology. All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real investment team.

software-development, frontend, angular, backend, spring-boot, machine-learning, data-analysis

Stock Monitoring and Analysis System

Saraswathi Shanmugamoorthy

Design and implement a robust Stock Monitoring and Analysis system which will provide users with real-time stock data, allows them to monitor and manage their stock portfolios, and offer insights for informed investment decisions.

In this project, we task you with creating a robust and feature-rich Stock Monitoring and Analysis system using Angular for the Front-end and Java Spring Boot for the Back-end.

Your mission: build a user-friendly dashboard where users can track and manage their stock portfolios and monitor real-time prices. Take on the challenge of designing a secure user authentication system and explore the intricacies of database management. Dive into the world of finance by retrieving and updating stock price data. This project will help you gain valuable experience in API integration, data processing, storage and retrieval, as well as information display and visualization.

Semantic Analysis of a Social Media

python, pandas

Sam Richards