EECS Senior Design Partnership

The EECS Department capstone matches senior student teams in computer engineering, computer science, data science and engineering, and electrical engineering with industry partners facing substantive technical challenges. Qualifying projects arise from your organization’s current development, operations, or research activities and represent the kind of engineering work you would otherwise assign to a junior engineer or small internal team.

Projects are scoped as proof-of-concept efforts and should not be on a critical path. Sponsors designate a technically qualified liaison—typically a practicing engineer—who can brief the team, evaluate their technical decisions, and participate in regular check-ins throughout the year. The liaison role is critical; student teams depend on informed access to the sponsor’s domain context.

Projects involving EECS students as part of a broader multidisciplinary team are considered on a case-by-case basis. The key determining factor is whether the electrical, computing, or data design challenge is substantive enough to constitute senior-level work in its own right.

• Student teams are drawn from computer engineering, computer science, data science and engineering, and electrical engineering. Cross-disciplinary teams within the department are preferred.
• The project must represent senior-level design work—involving analysis, research, experimentation, and documentation.
• Scope should be completable within an academic year (approximately 30 weeks at 10 hours per week per student). A three-member team represents roughly 900 student-hours of effort.
• A minimum team size of three students is required; scope should support meaningful parallel workstreams.
• Projects involving disciplines outside the department will be considered only where a substantive design challenge is clearly defined for at least one EECS student and is not merely subordinate to another discipline’s primary objectives.

• Provide a clear project description with background, objectives, and expected outcomes prior to the start of the semester.
• Designate a technically qualified liaison who will participate in regular status meetings and end-of-semester presentations, and who can evaluate the team’s technical decisions throughout the project.
• Cover all direct project costs—materials, components, software subscriptions, and any required travel. Budget scope is driven by project requirements and may be adjusted by mutual agreement.
• Provide a purchasing mechanism for project materials. A University CARA account can be established to route expenditures; the department can support this process.
• Provide written feedback on student performance and project quality at the end of each semester. This feedback is a formal input to the course grade.
• Attend end-of-semester presentations, held at dates provided in advance, either in person or remotely.

Compensating students—through a stipend or project completion bonus—is not required but has consistently produced stronger outcomes by allowing students to prioritize the project alongside their academic obligations. Compensation arrangements are governed by a separate memo of understanding; see the IP section below.

• A team that manages the project professionally: tracking progress, communicating risks and changes, and meeting defined milestones.
• A fresh technical perspective, and in most cases a functional proof-of-concept prototype.
• Product-level documentation suitable for project continuity—requirements, architecture, test plans, and design artifacts. Documentation formats may be negotiated with the instructor to match sponsor standards.
• Early access to graduating engineers for recruiting consideration.

Under Board of Regents policy, students initially retain ownership of intellectual property they create. Sponsors may request an assignment of student-generated IP at the start of the project using the approved agreement. Any resulting patent applications must list contributing students as inventors where their contributions meet the threshold of inventorship under U.S. patent law and USPTO standards.

• If a faculty member is formally assigned to the project, IP rights vest with the SDBOR unless alternative arrangements are made in writing prior to the project start.
• If the sponsor compensates students, IP rights transfer to the sponsor upon project completion. Where students are not already employed by the sponsoring organization, this requires a memo of understanding covering compensation and IP terms, executed and delivered to the team within the first two weeks of the semester. A template is available on request.

Questions regarding IP policy should be directed to Economic.Development@sdsmt.edu.

Projects ideally require minimal confidential information from the sponsor. Where appropriate, a one-way nondisclosure agreement may be used between the sponsor and participating students using the approved form. Students are bound by NDA terms; however, because projects occur within an academic course, final reports and presentations are required. These deliverables will be designed to protect confidential information by omitting or redacting sensitive content.