Welcome to the Project Build portion of Summer Capstone 2022! 🥳 🎊 🎉
Know that your Marcy Lab Family is proud of the work you've put into getting to this moment of the program, but above all else, you should be proud of yourself! This journey is not yet over. In fact, the hardest part is yet to come. Because one last time, we are asking you to push yourself harder than you've ever pushed yourself before. If you are doing this right, you should be focussed and productive as a group for 6 hours during school hours every day. In addition, you should be working an additional 2-3 hours after school every day, and you should be working an additional 4-6 hours every weekend.
This group project will be the ultimate test in autodidactism. You will NOT be buildling a CRUD web application. You are now beyond that! While there are no hard requirements for your Capstone Project, it should be focused on a technology (or technologies) that was not part of Marcy's core curriculum.
Topics can include (but not limited to):
- AWS
- GraphQL
- Component Libraries
- Data Science
- Automated Testing
- Automated Deployments
- Performance
- Scalability
- Web Sockets
- Document-based databases
Since there are no hard requirements for your Capstone Project other than push yourself to explore new technologies, you might be wondering, "Where do I start?" or "How the heck do I up come with what to build?" or "I have no idea what's even feasible!"
One of the best way to brainstorm a Capstone Project is to see what others have built! Take as much time as your need to read through and process some Capstone Projects built by previous Marcy Lab Fellows!
In addition, see below for a list of Capstone projects outside of the Marcy Lab School! With the exception of the first one (Google Piano), every one of these projects were built by students who had the same amount of training as a Marcy Lab fellow.
When looking at these projects, the first thing you should think is "WTF! How do you get from CRUD to here?" This is the reaction that you should have! We are pushing you towards appropriately ambitious projects. You can do it! Even if you don't complete the project you initially set out to build, you will learn so much and you will have something incredible to show at the end of Capstone! You know how to work towards an MVP! You know Agile practices that will help you stay on track and make progress! Build a library, build a tool, build an npm package, build something that will challenge you!
| Week | Focus | Weekly Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| July 11th - July 15th | Project Scoping and Proposal | Submit a high-quality, detailed Project Proposal |
| July 18th - July 22nd | Wireframing, System Design, and Architecture | Submit a collection of high-quality, detailed technical planning documents |
| July 25th - July 29th | Project Build Week 1 | |
| August 1st - August 5th | Project Build Week 2 | |
| August 8th - August 12th | Project Build Week 3 | |
| August 15th - August 19th | Project Build Week 4 | |
| August 22nd - August 26th | Case Study Writing | As a group, document your technical journey in a Technical Case Study |
| August 29th - September 2nd | Presentation Prep | As a group, prepare a presentation on your Capstone Project |
| Assignment | Due Date |
|---|---|
| Project Proposal | Fri, July 15th |
| Technical Planning Documents | Fri, July 22nd |
| Implement Core Features | Fri, July 29th |
| First Technical Blog | Fri, July 29th |
| Complete MVP | Fri, August 5th |
| Publish First Technical Blog | Fri, August 5th |
| Scale Project and Performance Test | Fri, August 12th |
| Second Technical Blog | Fri, August 12th |
| Polish and Deploy App | Fri, August 19th |
| Publish Second Technical Blog | Fri, August 19th |
| Case Study Writing | Fri, August 26th |
| Project Presentation | Wed, August 31st |