Capstone Project Guidelines for Sponsors

Capstone Project Guidelines for Sponsors

Real-world projects for Capstone design are a vital part of the Mechanical Engineering curriculum at Rose-Hulman. Our seniors work in teams (typically four students) and value the chance to work with a client. Student teams work on design projects for three consecutive terms with the main offering starting during the fall term and ending spring term (beginning of September through end of May).

Characteristics of Great Capstone Projects 

• Projects that have realistic solutions involving proven technologies
• Project is comparable to a project given to an entry-level engineer
• Multiple solutions that are acceptable to the customer
• Give students autonomy to design, build, and test solutions

Projects to Avoid

• Technical challenge that has evaded your engineers for years or research project
• Critical path projects especially if it affects the well-being of your company
• Project that requires excessive proprietary material or trade secrets
• Project that requires development tools or instrumentation that RHIT does not possess

Client Expectations

• Provide a project liaison that communicates with students regularly to ensure timely feedback. Approximately an hour every other week works well.
• Sponsors should be aware that not all projects end successfully and sometimes students fail. This is a learning environment, and we cannot guarantee success.
• Support the cost for the development of prototypes or any necessary travel.

Responsibilities of RHIT team (Students & Instructor)

• Typically, teams of three to five students are assigned to each project.
• A faculty instructor oversees the students’ progress from an academic perspective.
• Students are expected to make substantial weekly progress on campus (~ 12 hours/week for each student)
• Students communicate with clients on a regular basis and present major accomplishments once a term and provide a written report at the end of each term.

Benefits of Sponsoring a Team

• Impact the learning of students
• Promote your culture
• Get a new perspective on a problem

Companies are required to cover direct project costs such as prototyping and team travelling costs. A donation of $1,000 beyond the direct project costs is appreciated to help support community projects done for non-profit organizations and to cover other general program costs. There are four potential funding models, with paying a donation with a tax write off typically being the easiest and most preferred method.

1. Pay a Donation: The company makes a financial donation to cover project expenses. Details of how to do this will be provided by the mechanical engineering capstone coordinator.
2. Invoice: RHIT invoices the company directly for the costs incurred.
3. Buy and Ship: The company directly purchases and ships the required materials to the project team.
4. Company Reimburses Student: The student pays for the materials and is reimbursed by the company.

*Note: We prioritize student learning in our classes. Due to our focus on student growth, not all projects end successfully. We cannot guarantee success. To offset the potential failure to achieve outcome we maintain our sponsorship cost as low as possible.  

To safeguard the intellectual property involved in project work, we are pleased to sign a mutually agreeable intellectual property agreement upon request. For additional protection of your proprietary information, a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) can also be executed. Please note that projects requiring an NDA will incur an additional support fee of $500.

As these projects are carried out by students, all project clients are required to sign liability waivers. Both the intellectual property agreements and liability waivers must be completed before the project begins.

Project proposals should be submitted by August 1. The projects will be officially accepted and assigned to students in September. Most of the projects start in September, but a few projects start in March and finish in February.

Faculty and/or students may contact sponsors for additional information in the meanwhile. Students begin working on their senior design projects in September and follow project timelines through May. We are on a quarter system so there will be 3 major milestones/deliverables at the end of each quarter (the week before Thanksgiving, the third week of February, and the second week of May). The students showcase their work by presenting these projects at the Rose Show (note-NDA projects are closed off to the general public).

Click below on the link to submit a project request. If you have any questions, please reach out to mechanical engineering capstone coordinator, Dr. Shraddha Sangelkar.

https://www.rose-hulman.edu/career-services/for-recruiters-and-employers/Partnership-Projects/index.html