Thank you in advance for supporting MME Senior Design!
A Senior Design project is a way for our faculty to consolidate course objectives and assess learning outcomes for all Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate students. Project ideas are imagined, designed, iterated upon, and validated over two semesters in group of (typically) 3-5 students. Project sponsorship is a key component of the Senior Design experience. Both the student groups and industry partners can significantly benefit from the relationship:
Student teams will learn to interact with corporate partners in a real-world setting, take feedback from outside sources and create a plan with actionable goals and deliverables. Throughout the project, teams engage with subject matter experts and obtain the training and insight to move quickly into industry positions after graduation.
Advisors/Stakeholders get a team of highly motivated students with a faculty mentor to develop multiple alternative solutions to professional problems. Corporate partners can also assess the mentorship ability and potential in their own staff/engineers by assigning them as Advisors in the program and evaluating the team performance in a low-stakes environment.
To help us create a strong set of projects for Senior Design I next semester, please share your project idea and some details about potential deliverables, disciplinary background required, and possible resource needs/available resources. If you are still formulating the details of your idea or have questions about Senior Design I, please contact bboesl@fiu.edu.
To make this project experience a positive and impactful learning experience for the students, all senior design advisors are required to (1) interact with the student team for at least 1 hour per week (this can be face-to-face, by phone OR virtually) to give them feedback on project progress, (2) attend the final presentation and showcase each semester, and (3) provide feedback to the teaching team at the end of each semester about student progress and performance.
A final note: During the project selection stage, a preference will be given to those projects that are industry sponsored that can also meet the criteria defined by the ABET evaluation process (as evaluated by the Mentor Team). All industry sponsored projects require a minimum donation of at least $500* to be considered for selection. 50% of this donation can be used by the student teams for materials and supplies and 50% will be used for the administration of the senior design program. Those projects not selected each semester will be considered for implementation in subsequent semesters.
*Projects proposed by faculty/non-profits/Student Clubs/students will be considered at a reduced rate.