Sponsoring a Watson College senior capstone project has many benefits, including:
- High ROI: multiple students working on company-defined challenges.
- Access to a diverse talent pipeline across engineering disciplines.
- Opportunities to mentor and evaluate potential hires.
- Public visibility through Watson College communications.
- Multiple design solutions when projects are assigned to more than one team.
- Low-risk entry point to begin (or renew) engagement with Watson College and Binghamton University — a path to broader engagement with the college.
- Support the engineering profession by providing experiential learning opportunities to students.
Characteristics of a good capstone project
- Real-world challenges: Addressing substantive challenges for corporate partners, laboratories, or community organizations.
- Multidisciplinary technical depth: Integrating advanced mathematical modeling, system design, or programming across engineering fields. Incorporating modern engineering and scientific methods, including the use of artificial intelligence.
- Authentic design ambiguity: Navigating open-ended problems that lack simple solutions and require strategic trade-offs.
- Professional project constraints: Meeting budgetary, regulatory, safety, and scheduling limitations.
- Demonstrable technical outcomes: Delivery of functional software or hardware prototypes supported by rigorous data validation.
Projects also should avoid the need for nondisclosure agreements (NDA) with students, and the University will not seek to obtain intellectual property (IP) or patents derived from the project.
Read about past senior capstone projects
Expectations of sponsor
- Provide a gift to the Watson Capstone Studio.
- Work with college leadership to provide a thoughtful project with the appropriate scope and requirements.
- Serve as a technical resource throughout the project by providing guidance, feedback, and expertise as needed.
- Participate in periodic meetings, project reviews, and communications with the student team and faculty advisor.
Timeline for sponsors
- Begin discussion with studio leadership about project proposal during spring semester prior to capstone academic year.
- May: Submit project proposal to capstone committee.
- June: Work with capstone leadership and faculty to refine project scope.
- July: Finalize project details and sign gift agreement
- September: First meeting with project team and faculty.
Process
- Submit interest form through capstone website.
- Meet with capstone leadership to determine project scope.
- Submit project proposal.
- Meet regularly with the assigned team and faculty advisor.
Current and previous sponsors
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