Become an Industry Partner and Sponsor Student Capstone Projects
Students from the Design Science Master of Science (MS) program are required to complete an industry sponsored graduate-level Capstone Project (503 course) toward fulfillment of their degree. Through this process, our students gain valuable and relevant industry experience while applying what they learned in their academic program toward open-ended engineering challenges or industry problems. Since DESCI students craft their customized plan of study based on their interests, past projects have focused on a very wide range of critical topics.
Project Sponsors, Students, and Program Benefits
We welcome company/industry sponsors to submit project proposals or discuss ideas about potential projects. Typically, sponsors integrate these projects as part of an internship or research opportunity for master’s students. These students typically have post undergraduate work experience from a variety of industries and will have completed at least 18 academic credits toward their master’s degree.
These capstone projects are viewed as a Win-Win-Win. Students are given opportunities to apply their integrative thinking and technical problem-solving skills, their University of Michigan faculty advisors gain valuable connections with company/industry leaders to keep informed of needs and trends, and sponsors get several benefits, including:
- Progress toward improving the design of their products and processes, continuous improvement of existing operations, and exploration/implementation of innovations.
- Evaluate talent and possible future hires of students.
- Obtain access to expert faculty at the University of Michigan.
- Improved organizational performance through completion of projects that lead to new revenue, cost savings, cost avoidance, or other intangible, yet important company objectives.
About the Capstone Project Process
- First, students submit project proposals for approval by the DESCI Program Director (these proposals often involve discussions between company sponsors and prospective students). Projects may be assigned to an individual student or to a team of up to four students.
- DESCI project durations are four months (one semester).
- Students receive mentoring from both an assigned University of Michigan faculty technical adviser and a company sponsored project lead/mentor.
- Students use existing data or collect data to perform analysis, modeling, programming, or design tasks.
- The main deliverable is a final project report that demonstrates the application of academic program skills and methodologies toward an industry-specific problem. Reports typically include a summary of the improvement opportunity, review of the current state, summary of approach or methodology used, major project results/findings, recommendations, and estimated benefits.
- Note: Information deemed sensitive or confidential by an external company sponsor is not required to be shared with the University of Michigan. Options exist to allow a student to complete a project without sharing confidential information.
CoE Capstone Project Timeline Summary:
Fall Semester Project (Aug-Dec): Project proposals due end of July
Winter Semester Project (Jan-April): Project proposals due mid-November
Spring/Summer Semester Project (May-Aug): project proposals due early April
We look forward to partnering with you to provide our students with design challenges through capstone projects.
For project ideas or questions, please contact the CoE Capstone Coordinator at
503capstonecoord@umich.edu