The University of Utah College of Engineering has established an Engineering Clinic to provide private industry with the direct benefits of practical research. This program places senior engineering students in specially equipped University laboratories to tackle problems of concern to individual corporate sponsors. The students work under faculty and corporate supervision.
Students earn course credits and the opportunity to apply academic skills to engineering problems.
Faculty make contacts with industry that potentially open new avenues of research, and the University benefits from an engineering curriculum substantially enriched by the realism of engineering practice. Sponsoring companies receive a product prototype when applicable, a comprehensive final report, and exclusive licensing rights to any resulting patents. During the course of the project, sponsors also get a close-up look at some of Utah's brightest engineering students as possible future employees. The Utah program encourages industry to submit only those kinds of projects that will benefit them directly and that could be completed at comparatively low cost within two academic semesters. Beehive International became the first two corporate sponsors of the Utah clinic program, which was announced in the spring of 1986.