Mechanical Engineering Senior
Design:
ME 4910 Capstone Design in Mechanical Engineering I and ME 4920 Capstone Design in Mechanical Engineering II
If you know very early what project you want, volunteer your time with the current team. This will endear you toward the faculty advisor, and will probably guarantee you a spot on the team when you are a senior. This type of continuity from year-to-year is very important to successful teams.
Meet with your academic advisor in the January timeframe to determine whether you’ll be eligible to take Senior Design in the Fall semester. Prerequisites for this class are verified for each person who is signed up.
Form teams and contact faculty advisors in the February/March/April timeframe. The size of the team should be three or four persons.
Decide on a project as early as possible. Many of the competition-based projects that run year-after-year get taken early on.
Talk to seniors currently in the class. They can be a wealth of information about their projects.
Find something that sparks your interest! You’ll enjoy the experience much more if you do.
Attend the Senior Design Presentations in the last week of April. This is usually on the Saturday after classes end. This is a great opportunity to get an overview of the projects.
Your team should consist of people that you enjoy being around, because you are going to be around them a lot during the year you take Senior Design!
You should plan on spending approximately 15 hours per week on your project.
The time spent will definitely increase toward the end of the project.
Previous Senior Design Projects: