Sponsoring MME Capstone Projects

Thank you for your interest in proposing a project for our capstone design class in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

Typically good Projects:

• Mechanical or thermal testing devices,
• Automation equipment,
• Safety devices,
• Special processing equipment
• Exploratory products.
• Projects related to clean energy or sustainability

Typically bad projects

• Projects with strict deadlines
• Project that use sponsor’s proprietary technology
• Active projects being worked on by other engineers in the company
• Large scale facility designs
• Projects with excessive prototyping cost
• Strictly fabrication projects
• Projects involving extensive experimentation and research
• Software design

Intellectual Property Rights

If asked, our students usually have no problems signing “non-disclosure” agreements but this is up to the individual students. In addition, it is up to the students to agree giving up the patent right should their work result in a patentable product. According to guidelines and policies of the university, PSU does not claim any ownership of IP resulting from undergraduate capstone projects. The faculty does not sign NDAs but the university usually does that on behalf of the faculty.

Expectations from PSU teams and Sponsors

The students often do a good job on their design projects but there are no guarantees that they would be able to deliver what they intended to deliver. The role of the industry advisor is to provide information and guidance to the students rather than driving and managing the project. This usually translates into one to two hours of contact each month from November to June.

All teams are required to prototype and test some aspects of their designs. It is informally agreed that sponsors would provide some resources for prototyping and testing of the designs.