Senior Design Project

Meet your future employees today

The Senior Capstone Project course has been enhanced to become a new Senior Design Project course. Every Senior Design Project in the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences (SCCS) is a two-semester course required for all seniors to graduate. Having successfully completed most of the Computer Science curriculum, students must solve real-world technical problems posed by the industry sponsors. Each team of 3-5 seniors is mentored through the project by a SCCS professor in collaboration with an engineer or a manager from the company.  

Guidelines for Sponsors:

• Projects are not work for hire: A Senior Design Project is a learning experience for students that will be evaluated as an academic course. A project is also a means for fostering collaborative relationships with potential future employees.
• Project cost is a gift to the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences: The cost of the project is a gift to the school payable by October 1, as opposed to compensation for completion of the project to the satisfaction of the sponsor. This gift covers the cost of administrative overhead, lab costs and the costs of any procured hardware/software, travel expenses, etc. The sole evaluation of the students' performance is the letter grade earned at the end of each semester. 
• Projects are separate: When a company sponsors multiple projects it should be understood that the projects are separate and there should not be any expectation that there will be coordination across projects.

Result:

Our industry partners gain first-hand experience of teaming up with potential employees with no commitment other than to help the project succeed. Projects can span a wide range of possibilities including researching and analyzing problem, conceptualizing a new or alternate solution, designing new or refining existing software, or constructing a working prototype based on a specification. Our students learn how to work collaboratively in a corporate setting while producing professional periodic progress reports and demonstrations of their accomplishments.

Benefits to Sponsors:

• Value: For a modest fee, a team of four or five "almost engineers" will partner with you, report to you and be supervised by both you and our faculty. As they have real responsibilities resolving technical and design challenges for you, it costs a fraction what you would pay full-time employees for the same type of project. A typical student team will be engaged on the project for about 32 weeks, during an academic year, from the end of August to the beginning of May. The cost to the industry sponsor is $10,000. 
• Workforce development and recruiting: This partnership can provide a pipeline of talent to fill growing numbers of high-tech vacancies as sponsors will have the opportunity to collaborate with, cultivate and evaluate undergraduate students as prospective employees. This is also a particularly low-cost option when compared with the costs of procuring professional recruiting services to meet staffing needs. 
• Tackling a challenge or exploring a new idea: The Senior Design project is a cost-effective way for companies to tackle a technical challenge or explore new ideas without the large investment typically associated with product development. Our students and faculty will assist you to research and analyze the problem, conceptualize alternate solutions, design and develop a system or a process, etc.

Interested in your company sponsoring the next Senior Design Project course?

Contact Dr. Onyeka Ezenwoye

oezenwoye@augusta.edu

706-729-2078