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CAPSTONE DESIGN
SPONSOR INFORMATION |
Take advantage of Northeastern University's capabilities
in Applied Research and Development and participate in collaborative
research or sponsored projects.
The Senior Engineering Capstone Design projects
provide opportunities for students and companies. The students
learn how to actively manage a real project with real engineering
challenges. Companies get the chance to have a project executed
at a modest investment and have the opportunity to learn about
the benefits of University collaboration. Capstone is the climax
of Northeastern University’s Practice-Oriented Engineering
Education and provides the final component for integrating the
academic and practical aspects of the engineering curriculum.
Each Capstone Design Team plans and executes a design project
(under the supervision of a highly qualified faculty member) that
culminates in a working solution, a final report and a formal
presentation.
Collaboration on an undergraduate Senior Engineering Capstone
Design project enables your organization to perform a research,
design, or product development opportunity at a modest investment,
while establishing close relationships with both students and
faculty.
The engineering Capstone Design course at Northeastern is the
key component for integrating the academic and practical aspects
of our “Practice-Oriented Engineering Education.”
It helps students learn how to actively manage career opportunities
and challenges and develops a comprehensive understanding of who
they are and what they have accomplished to date. Each Capstone
Design team plans and executes a design project that culminates
in a working solution, a final report and a formal presentation.
Companies like yours sponsor many of these projects through direct
sponsorship and in kind donations.
Benefits of Participation
Collaboration on a project with students and faculty has several
direct and indirect benefits to the industry sponsor:
- Establishes close relationships between distinguished faculty
and senior students
- Gains access to new technologies, fresh ideas and solutions
to real problems
- Provides an opportunity for low cost, low risk investigation
of back-burner ideas
- Identifies talent for future employment
- Gains insight into the benefits of research partnering
- Learn about the University's Research Centers, Cooperative
Education opportunities and Technology Transfer opportunities
- Provides project management experience for your junior staff
engineers
- Gives corporate exposure on campus
General Guidelines
Industry-sponsored projects have, over the years, resulted in
impressive and realistic solutions to real-world problems for
the sponsors. In several cases, patents have been issued. The
projects may be multi-disciplinary or may be more oriented toward
a single engineering discipline.
The ideal project is the design of a product, process, or civil
engineering project that involves technical analysis, financial
justification and possibly, physical prototyping for a minimal
investment. This is an excellent opportunity to investigate the
potential of that back-burner idea that has been sitting on your
desk. Projects need to have a strong design component with clear,
well-defined objectives.
While civil engineering students do not typically produce a product,
they can offer innovative solutions to problems in environmental,
geotechnical, structural and transportation engineering.
The project teams perform all the tasks of a design project. These
include problem identification, planning of the project, formulation
of design specifications, development and evaluation of alternative
conceptual designs, development of detailed designs, specification
of manufacturing processes and prototyping of manufacturing processes
and parts. State of the art facilities for design, prototyping
and production are available in the various research and engineering
laboratories. Students travel to industrial sites to gain an understanding
of existing processes and problems and to assess the customer's
needs. Project teams are expected to provide interim reports to
the sponsor as well as a final project report (including detail
design specifications and analyses), oral presentation, and demonstration
hardware (if applicable).
Sponsor Requirements
A successful industry-based student design project requires that
the sponsoring organization assign a motivated individual to oversee
and interact with the students during the project. The most critical
factors to a successful project are communication between the
sponsor and the University, and commitment to the project. Generally,
a commitment of 1-2 hours per week is required. The Industrial
Monitor or Practitioner Partner is expected to do the following:
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a)
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Attend a project kickoff meeting with the
students during the first week of the project, at which
time a brief presentation is given to the students to market
the project.
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b)
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Provide more detailed information than the
initial one page summary.
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c)
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Facilitate visits by the students to the
sponsor's location. The first visit should occur within
10 days of project initiation. Typically, students visit
the sponsor's site two or three times during the project.
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d)
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Meet with the students regularly (either at
the sponsor's site, at Northeastern's Boston campus or via
telecommunication).
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e)
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Review regular reports (weekly or bi-weekly)
to provide feedback from the industry point of view (progress
reports, project proposal, design analysis, final report).
Communication by E-mail is highly effective and is encouraged.
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f)
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Evaluate the students' performance as part
of their final grade.
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g)
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Attend the Project Showcase, the final project
presentation of all the design projects, on campus during
the last week of the term.
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h)
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Demand professionalism and a high level of
performance from the students.
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Tell Us About Your Project
Please send a fax, mail or e-mail to:
Dr. Yaman Yener
Associate Dean of Engineering
Research and Graduate Studies
130 Snell Engineering Center
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115-5000
Phone: 617.373.2711
Fax: 617.373.2501
industrialrelations@coe.neu.edu
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