Senior Capstone Design

What is senior capstone design?

Student Capstone Design is the culmination of the engineering education for students. The course is the opportunity for students to apply their engineering knowledge to real-world applications as a final step in preparation for joining the workforce.

The ISU College of Engineering offers several capstone courses:

Department	Contact	Course Format	Timing
Aerospace Engineering   Capstone Site	Stephen Holland	Industry & Academic Projects	1-Semester Course
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering	Jay Harmon	Industry & Academic Projects	2-Semester Course
Chemical and Biological Engineering	Jim Hill Cory Stiehl	Academic Projects	1-Semester Course
Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering	Beth Hartmann Kelly Strong Thomas Stout	Industry & Academic Projects	1-Semester Course
Electrical and Computer Engineering   Capstone Site	Manimaran Govindarasu Daji Qiao	Industry & Academic Projects	2-Semester Course
Industrial Technology	Thomas Glanville	Industry Projects	2-Semester Course
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering   Capstone Site	Leslie Potter	Industry Projects	1-Semester Course
Materials Science and Engineering	Hogan Martin Kristen Constant	Industry & Academic Projects	2-Semester Course
Mechanical Engineering   Capstone Site	Jim Heise	Industry & Academic Projects	1-Semester Course
Interdisciplinary Design   Capstone Site	Stephen Holland	Industry & Academic Projects	1- or 2-Semester Course

What are the benefits of senior capstone design?

Companies engaging in the ISU Capstone Design program see benefits on several different levels:

Project Results

• Gain a new perspective on difficult engineering problems facing your company.
• Students have access to state of the art equipment and world-class faculty.

Student Interaction

• Opportunity to see the value ISU engineers can bring to your organization.
• Showcase your company to students nearing graduation.

What can the College of Engineering and CIRAS do for my company?

The College of Engineering, in partnership with CIRAS, offers opportunities for businesses to be part of this program through sponsoring student projects each semester.  The faculty managing capstone classes will work with companies to identify an appropriate scope and level of complexity for the students, ensuring a benefit to the business and the students.

Some guidelines in identifying Senior Capstone Design projects include:

• Addresses a real industrial issue.
• Is not time critical.
• Can be reasonably completed by student teams in a 15-week timeframe (~ 400 person-hrs).
• Involves no confidential, classified, proprietary, or similarly restricted information.

What is my next step?

Contact this staff member to help understand which programs may be right for you and have current availability:

Michael R. O'Donnell

515-294-1588

modonnll@iastate.edu