Final Project Workshop 1

Today's Plan

Your final project is an opportunity to build something of your own design using AI. Today and in Workshop 2 (Apr 30) are the class sessions where you'll do that work. You are not expected to work on your project outside class. That means the scope of what you build has to fit into what you can finish in these two sessions.

You'll brainstorm an idea, pitch it to a partner, refine it based on their feedback, and then start building. Workshop 2 continues the build and ends with showing what you made.

In-Class Activity~85 min

Brainstorm Your Project~10 min

Pitch + Peer Feedback~20 min

Partner work

Refine Your Proposal~10 min

Build / Setup~35 min

Progress Check-In~5 min

Feedback~5 min

Brainstorm Your Project

What do you want to build?

You have about two hours of build time across today and Workshop 2. Pick something you can actually finish in that window. A small thing that works beats a big thing that doesn't.

Some starting points:

Remix a lab — take the websites lab, the data analysis lab, the study guide lab, or the creative media lab and push it further. You already know how these tools work.
Solve a real problem — something that annoys you, your roommates, your study group, your club. Small and specific is good.
Build a tool for one person — a personalized study guide, a project tracker, a gift recommender for your sibling, a trivia game for your friends.
Make something weird or fun — a silly generator, a fake business, a tribute site, an interactive story.
Experiment with a new AI tool — a personal assistant, an agent that does something for you, a custom GPT or Claude project.

You are not expected to work on this outside class. Keep the scope small.

Write down your idea below:

Pitch + Peer Feedback

Partner Activity

This activity involves working with a partner.

Pitch Your Project

Take turns pitching to your partner. Each pitch should cover:

What you're building (one sentence)
Who it's for (yourself, a friend, a group you're part of, nobody in particular)
The smallest version that would still be interesting
Which AI tool you plan to use

Then the listener gives feedback. The main question to ask your partner: can this actually be built in two hours? If not, help them narrow it. What could they cut? What's the one core thing that matters most?

Both people should pitch. Plan on roughly 5 minutes per direction for pitching, and 5 minutes per direction for feedback.

Refine Your Proposal

Your Refined Proposal

Based on your partner's feedback, write a revised proposal. It should be narrower than your original idea, not broader.

Cover these four things:

What you're building (one clear sentence)
Who it's for
What "done" looks like at the end of Workshop 2 — what you'd show if we did a gallery next Thursday
Which tool you're using — pick one and commit to it

If your proposal doesn't feel narrower than what you wrote in stage 1, it's probably still too big. Cut more.

Build / Setup

Build

Pick your tool and start building. You have about 35 minutes. The goal is not to finish, but to get far enough that you know exactly what you'll do first when Workshop 2 starts.

Tool suggestions depending on your project:

Websites, apps, games — Replit with the AI agent (you still have the promo code from the websites lab)
Text, documents, study materials — ChatGPT, Claude, or a Claude Project
Data analysis — ChatGPT or Claude with file upload, same tools as the data analysis lab
Images, audio, video — the tools you used in the creative media lab
A custom assistant or agent — Claude Projects, Custom GPTs, or any of the agent-building platforms

Tips while you build:

Describe outcomes, not code. "I want a page that shows my reading list with tags" beats "make a div with a flexbox."
Iterate in small steps. One change at a time.
Preview constantly. Check what the AI actually did before giving the next instruction.
Re-describe when stuck. If a chat is going sideways, stop and start over describing the whole thing fresh.

When you've got something — a link, a working preview, a document — submit it below as a checkpoint. Even if it's rough.

Progress Check-In

Where did you get, and what's next?

You're not expected to touch this between now and Workshop 2. So the question is: when you sit down next Thursday, what's the first concrete thing you'll do?

Not "finish the project." Something specific: "add the filter button," "write the intro page," "fix the layout bug," "generate the images for the three events."