This is a fair point. I would hate spamming any maintainer. Most of these contributions will happen after the students have completed their curriculum and done 1-2 concept designs. [Apologies if I did not make it clear that I am just trying to replace the redesign projects -- not the new concept design]

At the same time, if I fork any repo of my choice -- I don't think we'll necessary work on the most important aspects. Reducing the chances of the design getting incorporated or the students getting any objective feedback to improve things.