Sponsored Projects: Senior Design and Master’s Project Track
Thank you for your interest in sponsoring a project for Cal Poly’s Biomedical Engineering (BMED) department! We are happy to have you here, and we hope that this page will help answer questions you may have about sponsoring a project.
Senior Design Project vs MS Project
Both the BMED Senior Design Project and the Master’s (MS) Project Track are a team-based experience where students design, build, and test a solution that will benefit your organization’s current work. This format allows students to apply their engineering fundamentals while developing the teamwork and communication skills needed for today’s workplace. Students also gain valuable experience working with industry partners. As the sponsor, you will help guide the team through weekly check-ins. Each team also has a faculty advisor who works closely with each team to help support their projects.
Goals
The main goal of senior projects is student learning, and our course learning objectives are as follows:
• Define an engineering problem and translate customer requirements into design specifications
• Construct a project plan and identify the critical path of tasks for the design project
• Create a quality management system for the design project
• Apply structured information gathering and decision making tools to improve product quality
• Construct design prototypes
• Implement design verification and validation
• Defend design choices using formal documentation
• Explain how FDA regulatory requirements foster the ethical design and manufacture of medical devices for improving public health
The main goal of MS projects is exposing students to work in an industrial setting, and our learning objectives are as follows:
• Negotiate and finalize project details and success criteria with your customer(s)
• Complete a project plan and budget
• Complete a comprehensive literature review for your project
• Obtain IRB and/or IACUC approval (if necessary) for your project
• Construct design prototypes and/or perform design verification and validation
• Document your work in formal progress reports each semester
• Defend your work in a thesis-style defense of your final project report
As a sponsor, you will benefit from:
- • Getting the opportunity to work with a team of bright, creative Cal Poly students to develop innovative solutions to your company’s real-world challenges.
- • Assessing talent and recruiting Cal Poly students through an engaging hands-on “trial period.”
- • Retaining all intellectual property through our ISSP process described above
For both Senior Design and MS Projects, we look for opportunities in which students can design, build, and test a physical prototype of a biomedical-related device. For Senior Design Projects, we typically avoid projects that are purely software- or data analysis-based or have heavy biological or wet-lab components. For MS Projects, the longer duration and more flexible curriculum allows for a broader scope of projects including design, testing, software, or wet lab project compoenents. If you would like to see some examples of previous projects, take a look at the final reports online at the Cal Poly Digital Commons* website: Senior Design Projects and MS Projects.
*Note: arrangements can be made to keep your project confidential and avoid publishing online if needed.
We also ask sponsors to cover the cost of materials for the students to build their prototype. You may specify a maximum budget with the students during the initial phase of the project.
If you would like to retain rights to any intellectual property generated during the project, there is a sponsorship fee in addition to the cost of materials.
| Senior Design Project | MS Project |
For-profit Companies | $6,000 | $10,000 |
Non-Profit Companies Start-up Companies Individual | $3,000 | $5,000 |
- • This fee offsets technical support, consumable supplies, and overhead for the class.
- • This fee also allows all intellectual property (IP) to be owned outright by your organization.
- • Our Industry Sponsored Student Projects (ISSP) contract mechanism includes both NDA and IP language, and you have the option to control/limit any public dissemination of the project.
- Industry Sponsored Student Project (ISSP) Information and Contract Template
2 cohorts of Senior Design Projects are offered each year. Only 1 cohort of MS Projects is offered each year. Your project proposal must be submitted at least 2 months before the beginning of the project. Depending on the intellectual property/privacy concerns and associated paperwork for your project, this deadline may be earlier.
Senior Design Projects
The projects span two academic semesters. Two cohorts are run each year: Fall/Spring (late August through late May) and Spring/Fall (early January through late May and late August through mid December). Note that the Spring/Fall cohort is broken up by Summer break (late May to late August). We can run your project in whichever cycle works best for your company’s timeline.
- • During the first week of class, projects will be presented and teams of 2-4 students will be formed by faculty based on the students’ interests and background knowledge.
- • During the first semester, students will define the problem, perform background research, develop engineering specifications, develop and evaluate concepts, and present a Critical Design Review.
- • During the second semester, students will build and test the prototype, culminating in a final report, design history file, and presentation at a university-wide poster session.
MS Projects
The projects span three consecutive academic semesters (Fall, Spring, and Summer). Only one cohort is run each year starting in late August and completing during Summer semester (no earlier than early June and no later than late August)
- • During the first two weeks of class, projects will be presented to students and students will submit resumes to sponsors. Students will interview with interested sponsors and teams of 2-3 students will be formed by faculty based on the sponsor’s rankings of students and the students’ ranking of projects.
- • During the Fall semester, students will define the problem, perform background research, negotiate success criteria, commence project work, and present a progress report.
- • During the Spring semester, students will continue design, building, and testing activities and present a progress report.
- • During the Summer semester, students will complete their project, write a final report, and defend their project work in a thesis-style defense
FACULTY CONTACTS
