Strategies to Engage Capstone Design Course Sponsors in High-Priority, Client-Focused Projects

Capstone design courses are a mainstay in undergraduate engineering education worldwide. With an increasing awareness by students of sectors such as disability, sustainable development and technologies for developing countries and an increasing attraction to these priority areas, instructors are responding by developing industrial and community service contacts that have a clear human-need component.

This paper describes strategic factors in developing contacts within and outside the university environment. By generating a professional environment to attract projects in priority areas, the Department of Mechanical Engineering is operationalizing its commitment to providing education in areas students find most relevant to their future.