Occasionally we have members joining from other engineering disciplines across the campus. Unlike most other schools, we devote a full academic year to Senior Design, in addition to a full and rigorous academic curriculum. In the beginning of the year we provide to the students formal instruction in project management, design principles, teamwork, documentation, intellectual property, budgeting, ethics, and other relevant topics. MTU also has video-conference facilities. The students rank-order their project choices and we work to match projects to desires.
Companies can attend any or all of the presentations.
Appoint a company engineer for liaison with the project team and faculty advisor. In addition to a description of the technical challenge, include a couple of sentences about the significance of the project and its potential impact for the company. You can also re-offer a project you have sponsored before if there is more work to be done. A good set of background information is key to an effective project start. Project funds that remain at the end of the year go for much needed lab equipment acquisitions.