Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department

Portland State University

Senior Year Capstone Design Experience

Information for Sponsors

Overview
The objective of the capstone design courses is to prepare students for a design career. In the capstone course sequence students learn about the design process, identifying and interviewing customers, developing the product design specifications, developing engineering specifications, performing benchmarking and setting performance targets, performing parametric analysis, developing house of quality, performing external and internal searches for solutions, and making decisions about best options. The students learn about teamwork processes and project management techniques. They learn about team dynamics, conflict resolution, team decision-making methods, how to conduct formal team meetings and keep team records, and how to divide tasks efficiently. Capstone projects must have sponsors or affiliates outside of the university. Students learn to interact with clients, make presentations in class and to clients, and learn to write design reports. Finally, students are required to make physical prototypes of the devices they design and test them to verify that design requirements are met. For more information about these topics, you may refer to the following web site: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~far/

Capstone Projects
Capstone projects must have industrial sponsors or be a part of an organized professional society design competition. In order to fulfill the requirements of the class, projects must allow the design teams to have ample opportunity to create alternative solutions and make decisions based on objective information. Generally, capstone projects must have all the following three components:

· Design Content - Creative exploration of alternative designs and methods for synthesizing the product.

· Analysis Content - Application of the analysis methods developed in some previous engineering or science classes in support of design decisions.

· Verification - Must include prototype building.

Typically strong projects usually include:

· Mechanical or thermal testing devices

· Automation equipment

· Safety devices

· Special processing equipment

· Exploratory products

· Projects related to clean energy or sustainability

Typically weak projects usually involve one of the following:

· 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

· Design of devices unrelated to mechanical engineering training

· Projects that require signing NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) forms

One way of identifying suitable capstone projects is to set up meetings with a group of engineers who could brainstorm on such potential projects. The MME capstone coordinator can be invited to these meetings to provide his opinion regarding the suitability of the proposed projects and adequacy of their scope.

Surgical Robot – Sponsored by OHSU

Industrial Water Treatment – Sponsored by Intel

Two Phase Flow – Sponsored by NASA

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 unless the designs are unacceptable to the sponsor. Prototypes need not be full-scale and its scope is determined by the sponsor.

Volcanic Lake ROV – Sponsored by PSU Biology Dept

Capstone Calendar

The capstone experience is made up of three classes: ME 491 in Fall term, ME 492 in Winter term, and ME 493 in Spring term. Generally, capstone teams and projects are selected during the Fall term. In the Winter term the teams engineer their solution concepts into detailed production specifications. In the Spring term, teams work on prototyping and performance verification of their designs.

Elephant Enrichment Project – Sponsored by Oregon Zoo

ME 491 Mini Project Competitions (from top left): Solar Water Pump, Solar Water Pump, Solar Water Pump and Pole Climber

Mini Project: Rope Climber Mini Project: Egg Launcher

Inkjet Printer Microscope – Sponsored by Xerox Solar Energy Demonstration Kit

Two-Phase Flow – Sponsored by NASA Mira’s Ramp – Sponsored by Oregon Zoo

Intellectual Property Rights

If asked, our students usually have no problems signing “non-disclosure” agreements but this is up to the individual students. The students, however, must make in-class presentations and write progress reports about their projects. It is also 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.

HPV – Sponsored by ASME

FSAE – Sponsored by SAE