Industry Sponsorship Benefits
These projects present an opportunity to:
- Introduce new concepts into your organization (e.g., optimization to reduce production time, simulation to compare various scheduling alternatives, Lean Manufacturing practices, data visualization and analytics)
- Attain significant improvements to your organization
- Identify bright, future engineers who will soon enter the workforce
- Access expertise of our faculty members who interact closely with the student teams and are at the forefront of their fields.
- Provide a low-stress, low-risk environment for employees to refine their project management skills and/or learn to use specific equipment and software.
- Support community and educational outreach as an integral part of your business plan.
For more ideas on how to make the most out of your sponsorship, check out the American Journal of Engineering Education article: Industrial Sponsor Perspective on Leveraging Capstone Design Projects to Enhance their Business.
What makes a good Mechanical Engineering Capstone Project?
- The projects should be of high potential value to your organization, typically something you want to do, but you do not have the resources or knowledge to do yourself.
- It is NOT a pressing need for your organization
- What topics and tasks would be appropriate?
- Automation of an existing process
- Automation of manual processes via collaborative robots.
- Design and fabrication of processing or inspection fixtures
- Ergonomic improvements to assembly and fabrication cells
- Purpose-built assembly, test, and/or feeding devices
- Assistive technology / Universal design
- Green energy / energy use reduction
Mechanical Engineering Sample Projects
- Programmable fish jigging rig
- Deliverables: Fabricated prototype with single-axis stepper control
- Clamshell emptying device
- Deliverables: Prototype with 2 axes of motion control
- Dual track treadmill
- Deliverables: Design and fabrication of treadmill sub-assemblies to be integrated into larger research system
- Wind turbine emulator
- Deliverables: Working prototype device capable of applying a thrust, weight, and torque to the top of a miniature wind turbine tower to simulate the forces that a wind turbine’s base would experience.
What makes a good Industrial Engineering Capstone Project?
- The projects should be of high potential value to your organization, typically something you want to do, but you do not have the resources or knowledge to do yourself.
- It is NOT a pressing need for your organization
- What topics and tasks would be appropriate?
- A case study of a past project or program to identify strengths and weaknesses and provide recommendations for the future.
- Analysis of a potential project or program to determine if it is of value to pursue.
- A case study of a current process to look for opportunities for improvement.
- Application of machine learning and AI to process data.
- Any project that uses the students’ diverse skills in project management, engineering project budgeting and finance, systems thinking, leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, decision analysis, production planning, operations management, supply chain management and optimization.
Industrial Engineering Sample Projects
1. Evaluation of recently completed project:
- Analysis of costs, resources, and timing to determine what worked well and what did not.
2. Assessment of new products or features:
- Study of a new feature or product that the firm is considering to bring to market to determine if there is customer interest (are we really solving a customer problem or a perceived customer problem?)
3. Process analysis and improvement:
- Mapping of a manufacturing process to determine critical failure points, efficiency, etc.
4. Business case development:
- Evaluating a potential tool (software, hardware, machine) to determine ROI, true costs, time to production use, training needs, etc.
5. Life cycle management analysis of new products:
- Use of Windchill PLM software to manage the development of a new system accounting for the system’s entire life cycle.
Links to our most recently completed projects are included below: