Seth Tuler: They change both professionally and personally during the projects. Often they become much more confident in themselves, whether in engaging with their sponsor, their faculty advisor, and their teammates, or in their ability to maneuver in a new place. Many become more comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty as it relates to their project topics, and they learn how to problem solve in unfamiliar situations.
Professionally, they begin to understand more of the relationships between technology choices in social, economic, and political contexts that broaden their thinking. They ask questions about what potential users or decision makers need to know and they start to realize there are many perspectives about appropriate courses of action.