STORY: Ideate, Model, Test: Olin’s MechProto Students Complete the College’s First Build Challenge
Last Friday, students in Georgia Van de Zande’s Mechanical Prototyping (MechProto) course experienced Olin College’s first Build Challenge. Within one week of receiving the design brief, students ideated, modeled and tested their designs, all while exemplifying Olin’s core values of hands-on learning, collaboration and community.
The six student teams in Georgia Van de Zande's MechProto course pose after Olin's first-ever Build Challenge.
Photo by Leise Jones Photography
“This gets them going in a full design cycle before they start their final project for the full MechProto community and the people around that community,” said Van de Zande, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. David Meeker, adjunct professor and MechProto co-instructor, is also assisting her this semester. “It’s not just students and staff that are the community; it's everyone who's coming and watching and bringing everyone together in a visual way where we're all at the same event.”
The ideation of Olin’s Build Challenge began in October 2025. However, it first began at MIT, where Van de Zande was introduced to the event during her time as an undergraduate student. The Build Challenge, started by MIT’s David Wallace in his Product Design Processes (also known as 2.009) course, developed an esteemed reputation among the MIT community. As a graduate student, Van de Zande continued to assist Wallace with MIT's Build Challenge as a teaching assistant and lab instructor. Now, she supports the current instructors as a “friend of the class.”
As a faculty member, there's trying to build that atmosphere where students can do engineering and design work, but also add their own special flair to it and take it in the direction that they want.
Olin does it consistently throughout a lot of our classes, which is amazing. I had the idea to bring the Build Challenge to Olin because I think our students will get a lot out of it."
Georgia Van de Zande
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
“I was super excited to be able to help out and modify it to fit Olin better as a school. I just have a lot of general enthusiasm for this,” said Christian de Weck, a fabrication specialist and instructor at Olin. He also attended MIT and was familiar with the event when Van de Zande proposed the Build Challenge. “It is definitely a very spirited event. It really does rev up the sense of community.”
There were six teams in total: Red, Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, and Yellow. The challenge is an obstacle course that requires teams to deliver their colored balls, or “payload,” to a central area using their cardboard creations. The central area in this case is a giant roller that is pushed to the finish line.
Once presented with the design brief, Van de Zande’s students began ideating, followed by building their models made of cardboard. Similar to Olin’s Design Nature course, Van de Zande implemented a closed-loop system for the project materials, meaning that all supplies used can either be recycled or reused.
While students focused on their project models, Van de Zande, Meeker, staff, faculty and course assistants moved swiftly to help create materials to support the Build Challenge. Among the list of tasks were creating the team spirit awards and trophy, which were designed and made by de Weck.
"This is also part of the prototype, iterative process that they do in MechProto, and we’re actually doing it for the stuff surrounding the Build Challenge too,” said de Weck as he described the prototype for the trophy.
Ideate & Model: Photos from the Classroom
From the MechProto Students:
"I think the build challenge was a very welcome switch-up in the pace of the curriculum at Olin. It was great to stop worrying about perfect tolerances/perfect design and really work on creativity and building a strong team relationship. Even though it was a very early morning, it was incredible how much energy the Olin community brought to make the challenge a success and hopefully a new tradition!"
- Haakon Olsen ’29
"One main takeaway for me was the importance of teamwork, both in the process of planning to thoughtfully create the cardboard mechanisms and last-minute pivoting to work with other teams. We helped another team bring their balls to the finish line, which cemented for me that the design challenge was not just about teamwork but also about fun, something that I believe is core to Olin's culture."
- Rose Dampier ’29
"I enjoyed the Build Challenge as it offered me an opportunity to work with my team in an outside setting where we had to ideate on the spot to resolve issues we encountered with our devices that we hadn’t initially planned for. One thing I love about Olin is its determination to create unique experiences for students, so being a part of the first-ever Build Challenge motivated me to show my appreciation so that future students can have this same opportunity as well."
- Sofia Ramos ’29
"I got to both help set up a little and enjoy the event, and to see an idea evolve and come to life in the 'semi-organized' Olin way is what makes Olin feel like more than just a college but like a large family of engineers. My main takeaway is how caring the faculty and professors are to put on events and challenges like this to help engage and teach the students."
- Trevor McDonald ’29
The cold, damp weather did not stop Oliners from showing up with enthusiasm. Olin’s first Build Challenge took place on the Great Lawn as planned, and members of the Olin community supported the MechProto teams and their designs, establishing the foundation for the new event on campus.
Click here to watch a video from the event
“One of the most exciting parts to me was when—I think it was—pink, red and blue finished around the same time, and then they went and helped the other teams,” said Van de Zande. “We can't cross the finish line until all the balls are in and they all come together, and that was something new that I had introduced to the challenge after seeing how Olin tends to operate in a very collaborative environment.”
“It was competitive, but not in an exclusionary sense,” said de Weck. “We were all coming together, and it’s a lot of what I hoped for in terms of team bonding and people just having fun, which was really cool.”
