Stevens’ Senior Design Projects provide bridge to employment opportunities

HOBOKEN , N.J. – The Senior Design Program is the cornerstone of Stevens Institute of Technology’s undergraduate engineering degree experience. Beginning in the third semester of their junior year, Stevens' engineering students join together as design teams to identify an engineering project that is related to their area of study and of interest to an industry or government sponsor. For three semesters, students work in teams of up to four people, with a Stevens' senior design coordinator and a sponsor to define and decide the scope of their design project. A suitable project is one that provides value to the sponsor, is appropriate to the semester time scale, and meets the academic requirements of the engineering degree program.

Industry and government senior design sponsorship provides a context for the project that can afford the students a meaningful bridge to the real world of professional work. As part of the process, student design teams meet twice per semester with their project sponsors, and are accountable for set deliverables and a final report and presentation of their work.

An outstanding example of the role the Senior Design Project can play in highlighting Engineering Management student qualifications and professional growth, is the team working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on their Technology Transition Process. The team, comprised of Daniel Nagle, Patrick Cavanaugh, Kerri Polidore and Marissa Grant, were tasked with assisting the design of a transition process for FAA R&D programs involving the Next Generation (NextGen) Air Traffic Control System.

The objective of the project was to develop an efficient technology transitioning process for the FAA to use. In their first semester of work, the team recommended use of the LeanTec methodology already in use by many entities within industry and government. This system provides processes, proc edures and tools for greatly improving technology transition, and is specifically tailored to the aerospace industry. In the second semester, students were ‘refining and defining’ how LeanTec would be adapted for implementation within the existing FAA organizational structure and work processes.

"Their work has been widely shared across the organization, and is highly regarded", said Tim O'Hara, Manager of the Concepts and Requirements Definition Group at the FAA. "The FAA community was impressed by the seriousness of their efforts, and their persistence in reaching out to FAA personnel." As a result of their professionalism and their dedication and efforts throughout the senior design project, the FAA extended offers of employment to each of the team members. Upon graduating in May, three of the design team members will accept the FAA offers of employment, while the fourth student had already accepted an offer of employment by another company.

Senior Design teams presented their projects at the Senior Design Expo at the Canavan Arena on April 29, 2009, and for Engineering Management in greater detail on April 30, 2009 in the Babbio Center. This year’s Design Team Projects include: Traffic Modeling, Simulation, and Design; Biodiesel System Possibilities for Urban Areas; Assistive Technology to R educe Post-operative Re-injury; Quantitative Approaches to Assist Project Selection; Development of a Prototype Vehicle for Autocross Racers; Technology Transition Processes for Optimizing R&D Investments; and System Integration and Analytics for Financial Services.

Interested corporations, government agencies and organizations can visit this page (http://www.stevens.edu/sse/fileadmin/sse/pdf/SeniorD/SeniorDesign_BROCHURE_07.pdf) for more information about how to sponsor a Senior Design Team.

About the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens Institute of Technology

The School of Systems and Enterprises (SSE) is the largest provider of Systems Engineering education and research to the U.S. federal government and defense-related industries worldwide. Utilizing an Open Academic Model, the School emphasizes global partnerships with industry, government and academia, to provide highly relevant and rigorous degree programs. The SSE brings together faculty who are industry experts and practitioners, researchers, and academics, with students who are committed to learning, in a dynamic, diverse and engaged community.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University, is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,234 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with more than 400 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.

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