Mechanical, thermal, and systems design activities are continued in three junior year courses. The main goal in the senior year is for the students to learn to integrate their knowledge in science and engineering topics, and thereby to develop a degree of maturity in their engineering capabilities. In their final year, students may tailor their curricula by choosing nine credit hours of technical electives. Each of these technical electives includes design as an important component of the course. As such, students may decide to develop depth in a certain area or to develop breadth in several areas.
Some students choose to pursue an independent research project under faculty direction.
The senior year also includes a course in manufacturing processes designed to address the state's large manufacturing base and a two-semester sequence in engineering design. The first design course emphasizes design considerations and methods required to solve open-ended problems, as well as written and oral communication of the design solution. The final design course is a capstone course that requires integration of knowledge gained in preceding analysis and design courses. Regional industries present current problems to be solved by student teams. Both written and oral presentations of progress and final results are evaluated by faculty juries.