Senior Design Clinic Overview
- Opportunity for quality design engineering, prototype development and testing of new products and processes by a team of senior electrical, computer, civil and mechanical engineering students.
- Over 1000 hours of engineering work on your challenging engineering problem.
- Access to University resources through the student teams:
- Simulation and modeling resources: SolidWorks, ANSYS, MATLAB, circuit simulation, printed circuit board design, ARM and Xilinx FPGA based embedded systems design.
- Research resources: expertise of a faculty advisor dedicated to each project, University Library.
- Fabrication and laboratory resources: Machine shop, 3D printing, materials testing, electronics lab.
- Exposure to a team of engineering students with working knowledge of your business and products.
- Opportunity to “give back” by mentoring students on a real-world problem.
- Deepened relationship with students and faculty in an emerging engineering program in the Twin Cities region producing more than 130 electrical, computer, civil and mechanical engineers each year.
During their senior year, undergraduate engineering students take a two-semester Senior Design Clinic:
- Approximately 35 teams participate annually with 130 graduating seniors.
- 20% Civil, 20% Electrical & Computer and 60% Mechanical Engineering majors.
- Project sessions: Summer/Fall (Jun.-Dec.: about 20% of projects), Fall/Spring (Sept.-May: 80% of projects).
- Project teams of 3-5 students each.
- Student majors based on needs of the project (Civil, Computer, Electrical, Mechanical).
- 1st semester, students will: define customer requirements, generate concepts, select a concept, and complete a preliminary design review for the selected concept or approach.
- 2nd semester, students will: further refine the design, complete a detailed final design review, build prototypes or models and conduct testing & analysis to demonstrate the design meets requirements.
- Sponsoring companies provide a knowledgeable coordinator from their organization and access to necessary staff. In a typical project, the coordinator can expect about 4 hours be dedicated to interfacing with the students per month. In addition to periodic e-mail, phone and web communication, the following in-person meetings can be expected:
- Project kickoff meeting with the team, usually at sponsoring company’s facility
- Provide feedback at three design reviews at the University of St. Thomas over the 2 semesters
- Attend Senior Design Show at end of second semester
- Covering Project Expenses: $4,000 will be provided by most sponsors as a fixed cost grant to the school. Lower rates or waived fees are available to projects sponsored by startups, non-profits, and infrastructure projects for which there is no prototyping needed. All project expenses will be drawn first from the grant funds supplied. With sponsor approval, project expenses above this initial amount will be reimbursed by the sponsor.
- All inventions and patents resulting from projects are the sole property of the sponsor.
- Confidentiality: Projects reliant on protected and highly confidential information are NOT suggested since teams must be able to meet the course assignments of reporting and presenting.
- The Senior Design Clinic Sponsor Agreement details the provisions of both Intellectual Property and Confidentiality.