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MIME Senior Design Project:
Sponsor Information and Guidelines

MIME Senior Design Project is the capstone educational experience for OSU Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering undergraduates. This two-term course challenges our seniors to synthesize the knowledge they have gained during their undergraduate program and apply that knowledge in solving real-world engineering problems.

OSU MIME seeks partnerships with a diverse set of business and service organizations in and beyond the Pacific Northwest to provide our student teams with two key elements of the MIME Senior Project experience:

  • The real-world problems our students work to solve
  • The mentorship that helps our students devise solutions that meet their project sponsor's needs

To learn more about MIME Senior Project sponsorship, scroll down through the rest of this page—or to go to a specific topic, click on one of the topics below.

Our downloadable MIME Senior Project brochure also provides sponsorship information.

Or, if you're ready to fill out a project proposal form, click here.

Why sponsor an MIME Senior Project?

  • Do you have an idea for a new mechanical or electromechanical device or process but no time or resources to work on it?
  • Do you need help solving a problem with an existing device or process?
  • Would you like to improve the efficiency or ergonomics of machinery on your manufacturing floor?
  • Might a custom spreadsheet or database application improve decision making or record keeping in your manufacturing or service organization?
  • Could the effectiveness, efficiency, or safety of any of your manufacturing or service projects be improved? Or what about the ergonomics of your workstations?
  • Are your operations hampered by a poor facilities layout?
  • Would you like to analyze, optimize, and clearly document work procedures to reduce process or product variability?
  • Is your engineering staff or development budget stretched too thin to complete some of the projects on your company's to-do list?
  • Are you looking for mechanical, industrial, and/or manufacturing engineering assistance on a community service project?
  • Would you like to help train and mentor the next generation of mechanical, industrial, and manufacturing engineers?

If your answer to any of these questions is "Yes," we invite you to consider MIME Senior Project sponsorship.
Please contact the OSU MIME Senior Project Coordinator to discuss your ideas:

John Parmigiani
School of MIME, Oregon State University
204 Rogers Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331
parmigjo@engr.oregonstate.edu
phone: 541.737.7023
fax: 541.737.2600

Sample listing of recent MIME senior projects

MIME senior projects address both "product" and "process" design problems, as demonstrated in this partial listing of recent projects:

  • A reconnaissance robot for the Salem, Ore., Police Department
  • An operating-room recycling system for Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis, Ore.
  • A heated incubator door for Sheldon Manufacturing, Inc.
  • An order processing database for new product realization at MegaTech of Oregon
  • A kinetic sculpture vehicle for the First Alternative Cooperative Grocery in Corvallis, Ore.
  • A device to move processing containers during manufacturing for Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc.
  • A fruit tree pruning tool for the OSU Department of Horticulture
  • An improved scratch-it ticket dispenser for the Oregon Lottery®
  • A solar trailer for the OSU Student Sustainability Institute. The trailer's fold-out array of solar panels can power outdoor concerts, generate electricity for remote rescue operations, operate pumps at environmental clean-up sites, etc.

Project and sponsorship benefits

MIME Senior Project puts the finishing touches on our students' preparation as engineering professionals. Students are responsible for all aspects of their project, including:

  • Working with the project sponsor to fully define project requirements and design specifications
  • Benchmarking to understand state-of-the-art in the project area
  • Identifying multiple design solutions
  • Specifying a complete paper design including, as appropriate, component sizing, sourcing, and budget
  • Implementing and testing the design, and revising it to meet requirements
  • Meeting project deadlines

MIME Senior Project sponsorships are two-way relationships. Not only do they benefit our students by helping them develop marketable engineering skills, build professional relationships, and solve real-world problems; they also promise significant returns for industry, community, and personal sponsors:

  • With a relatively small investment of time and money, project sponsorship lets you pursue "outside-of-the-box" solutions to design problems.
  • Project sponsorship provides a "no-obligation" opportunity to work with and train potential company hires.
  • Project sponsorship raises your organization's visibility at OSU (and beyond) and leads to stronger working relationships with OSU MIME faculty.
  • And most important, project sponsorship is an avenue through which you can help shape and influence our next generation of engineers—here in Oregon, throughout the Pacific Northwest, and around the world.

Sponsor responsibilities

Project sponsors are expected to provide any necessary funding and materials for prototype construction and process implementation.We also request a $3500 sustaining donation from all corporate project sponsors; these donations support the MIME Senior Project program.

In addition, sponsors are expected to designate a project mentor. This individual serves as the project team’s technical consultant and point person, reviews and signs off on project documentation, and participates in project evaluation. Over the course of the project, this individual typically makes several trips to OSU to meet with the student team and may also host the team for onsite visits.

Project and proposal submission guidelines

Key project requirements

In putting together your Senior Design Project proposal, be sure that your proposed project has all of the following characteristics:

  • The project must address a technical problem in the areas of mechanical, industrial, and/or manufacturing engineering. This problem may be either product- or process-related, and it must be sufficiently rigorous to serve as a capstone project for senior-level students in these majors.
  • In its scope, the problem should be appropriate for a group of 3 students to tackle as a two-term project. More specifically, the scope must allow for development of a conceptual solution to the problem in 10 weeks and for implementation, testing, and revision of the solution in the following 10 weeks.
  • The problem must be open-ended—in other words, it must have more than one possible solution.
  • It should be able to be solved using existing engineering methods.

Student interaction expectations

Project sponsor–student team interactions are extremely important and should occur regularly throughout the project. In addition, the project mentor’s signature is required on all project requirements documents. These documents serve as contracts for what the project team must accomplish and specify the key criteria for project evaluation. It is therefore crucial that the project mentor reviews each of these documents carefully prior to signing them and provides feedback for necessary changes.

Other project considerations

  • Non-critical-path projects work best.
  • Projects may either be mechanical-, industrial-, or manufacturing-engineering-specific or require involvement of other OSU engineering majors such as electrical and computer engineering, computer science, chemical engineering, etc.
  • If you expect to loan equipment to the student team during the project, a loss and damage waiver will be needed. Please contact the Senior Project coordinator for more information

Proposal Submission

Your MIME Senior Design Project proposal should include a descriptive title, a brief summary of problem to be addressed, a concise listing of project requirements and constraints, and contact information for the designated project sponsor..

You can either submit your project proposal electronically using the online proposal form, or you can print out the form and mail or fax your proposal to the Senior Project Coordinator (contact information is on the form). To ensure that your Senior Design Project proposal receives full consideration, please submit it to the MIME Senior Project Coordinator by September 1 of the project year.

Please submit a separate form for each project you intend to sponsor.

Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Considerations

Confidentiality: OSU personnel can keep information which project sponsors provide confidential, but any work OSU personnel (including students) accomplish is public.

Intellectual Property (IP): By default, any IP created by the student team during the project belongs to the students. However, other arrangements are possible. Contact the Senior Project Coordinator for more information.

In cases where a project sponsor requests ownership of intellectual property resulting from the senior project as a condition of students' participation, the sponsor should be aware of the following OSU policy regarding student IP:  Students are never obligated to participate in projects or activities that require the assignment of the student's intellectual property to an outside entity. In these situations students will always be presented with a choice of two options: (1) To participate in projects or activities which do not require the student to assign their intellectual property, or (2) To participate in projects or activities that requires the student to assign their intellectual property.

Course timeline and student milestones

Late September–mid October:

  • Form team and select project
  • Meet with sponsoring organization and generate comprehensive project requirements list (sponsor signature required)
  • Conduct background research and begin benchmarking to learn state-of-the-art in project area

Key milestone: Background Report document

Mid October–early November:

  • Translate project requirements list into quantitative and testable specifications (sponsor signature required)
  • Complete benchmarking
  • Consider multiple potential solutions to design problem

Key milestone: Preliminary Proposal document

Early November–mid December (end of 1st term):

  • Devise testing procedures for all project specifications (sponsor signature required)
  • Select one design solution from options described in Preliminary Proposal
  • Specify ALL aspects of selected design solution

Key milestone: Final Proposal document

Winter Break (mid December–early January): Very useful for part delivery lead times!

Early January–early February:

  • Construct prototype (product projects) or prepare for implementation (process projects)

Key milestone: Evaluation of prototype or process prior to testing and revision

Early February–mid March (end of 2nd term):

  • Test and revise prototype or process to meet project requirements

Key milestones: Final presentation and evaluation of prototype or process; Final Report document; project poster for Engineering Expo

OSU Engineering Expo (mid May): Publicly present project in College-wide senior project showcase