Capstone Design Projects
Through the capstone design experience at USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, students work within interdisciplinary teams on an open-ended senior design project to understand and execute the full cycle of the design process. Capstone design projects at USD's Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering range across six categories — industry sponsored, software, competition, entrepreneurship, community and research — and allow engineering and computer science seniors to apply knowledge learned throughout their undergraduate career in a real-world scenario. Interdisciplinary teams work collaboratively with faculty members and project stakeholders to carry ideas from initial design through prototype fabrication, testing and evaluation to validate their solutions. As Changemakers, our seniors also consider issues related to ethics, economics, safety and professional practice in their design solutions.
Showcasing excellence
Explore our students' work
Industry Sponsors
Many of USD’s capstone design projects directly impact real-world companies. For industry-sponsored projects, an industry liaison is appointed as a mentor from the sponsoring company to provide students with an opportunity to address a technical challenge or problem statement. Working collaboratively with the company liaison, often onsite, provides students with invaluable hands-on engineering experience, the opportunity to work in a team environment and the ability to produce impactful and tangible solutions for our industry sponsors.