 | | Senior Design Projects | | |
Real World Experience
The capstone senior design project (ME 423 and ME 424) is intended to be the culmination of the undergraduate experience, where knowledge gained in the classroom is applied to a major design project. Projects involve teams, typically 2-6 students, working approximately one day per week over two academic semesters. Multi-disciplinary projects are encouraged.
Project ideas come various sources, including industry-sponsored projects, national student competitions (Formula SAE, ASME), non-profit groups, students groups (Engineers Without Borders), faculty research, and student-generated ideas (engineered toy for children with Autism). The Senior Design course is divided into six phases (three each semester), where students progress from the Proposal/Project Definition through Conceptual Design, Engineering Analysis through Prototype Testing and Analysis. Senior Design culminates with the Senior Design Day, an Institute-wide event held at the end of the Spring semester where the Senior Design projects from all across campus are showcased in an open-house in front of students, faculty, alumni, industry and government representatives, and often the local media.
Recent Senior Design projects have been profiled in the September 2008 issue of Popular Science in a story entitled "Generation Next: Radical Ideas from Today's Young Geniuses" (Handheld Spy Chopper) and the Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Pharmaceutical Engineering Magazine (Automatic Pill Bottle Opener).
Industrial Sponsorship
The Department recognizes the value of having the senior projects be sponsored and mentored in collaboration with an industrial partner. This provides meaningful projects of value to the industrial sponsor, and it imbues a professional orientation in the student team as they work towards providing the sponsor with deliverables in a manner that simulates the environment in which they will shortly be operating.
Suitable projects might include feasibility studies; design or redesign problems that are longer term and/or lower priority than the sponsor can tackle with their available personnel. This addresses the timing of Senior Design, which in both start time and project duration is not on the compressed scale of industrial activities. The goal would be to benefit the sponsor on a long-term basis rather than link the project to an immediate need. A Stevens faculty advisor will be assigned to guide the students in fulfilling the project requirements. Typically the sponsor will also provide an advisor.
 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle multi-departmental team with sponsor (far left) Alumnus Bob Thoelen '74 of Hamilton-Sundstrand Corp.
Benefits to the Students
- It is an opportunity to work at meeting a practical industrial need rather than pursuing a purely academic goal initiated by a faculty advisor
- Industrially defined problems typically have a scope that favors solution by cross-disciplinary teams
- Interacting with representatives of the sponsoring organization helps students develop greater professionalism and perspective.
Benefits to the Sponsors
- Sponsors can obtain solutions to problems or explore concepts that they cannot themselves address, perhaps because of time or personnel constraints
- Provides an opportunity to see potential hires in action and to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with these students
- Builds sponsor-faculty ties that may provide benefits in research and/or consulting in areas of interest to the sponsor
- Provides visibility for the sponsor on campus
- Affords an opportunity to assist in the education of the next generation of engineers in areas of interest to the sponsor.
If you are interested in learning more about how your company can sponsor a Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Project, please contact Professor Richard Berkof |
