Every senior in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at PSU must do a Senior Capstone Project ("capstone") to fulfill both the departmental degree requirements and the general University Studies requirement. For the last several years, U.S. News and World Report’s annual college survey has ranked PSU’s Capstone program as one of the best in the country. In surveys, our students consistently cite their capstone projects as one of the most rewarding and formative experiences of their undergraduate education.
The purposes of these projects are to give students the opportunity to:
apply their knowledge to solving real world problems
gain experience working as part of a multidisciplinary team
become actively involved in a company or other community organization
Companies, community organizations, and individuals who propose and sponsor these projects are referred to as industry and community sponsors ("sponsors"). Capstone sponsors are a critical part of the real-world, team-based experience that makes this capstone program so impactful.
We solicit projects during the Fall quarter, sometime between September - November. Community partners provide brief summaries of proposed projects, students review these and indicate which projects they are most interested in working on. Teams are then created on the basis of interest, ability, and background with an attempt to create balanced, diverse teams. Teams and faculty advisors are assigned to projects by the end of November.
Teams, faculty advisors, and sponsors are encouraged to have a first meeting in early December to clarify the project requirements, sign NDAs if required, arrange for any partner-required orientation or safety training, and receive badges as necessary. Students are expected to spend a portion of the winter break researching and clarifying their project.
In January, students research, write, and iterate a Project Proposal with the sponsors. Work on the project continues through the winter and spring quarters with project completion by the 1st week of June when Final Reports are submitted, presentations made to sponsors, and the projects are presented at the PSU ECE Capstone Poster Session.
First and foremost, sponsors get a project done! Often these projects would not otherwise be developed due to lack of funding, time, or personnel. Note that students may not receive financial compensation for work on capstone projects.
Second, sponsors have a chance to see and evaluate 4-5 potential hires over an extended period of time on a project of your choosing. After graduation, many of our students have been hired by the sponsors with whom they worked on capstone projects.
Finally, sponsors get the satisfaction of playing an integral role providing a quality, hands-on project experience to your students.
Provide a project coordinator who can provide a detailed description of the requirements, make arrangements for needed resources, and answer questions as they arise. Note that overall project supervision and grading will be done by a PSU faculty advisor, in coordination with the sponsor.
Actively participate in evaluation of the student’s work, providing feedback as necessary during the project and participating in assigning individual grades at the conclusion of the project.
Provide the resources needed to successfully do the project. Depending on the specific project, the list of resources may include parts, materials, a cubicle space, a computer, software, building access, etc.
There is no required fee for participating as a capstone sponsor. We will ask for a completely voluntary contribution to help fund the capstone program at its conclusion, but again, this donation is completely voluntary and should only be made by sponsors with adequate resources.
The projects are typically real-world design projects undertaken by teams of 4-5 students working with a sponsor and a faculty advisor.
The project should be substantial and needed but not part of a critical path required for continued success of the sponsor. While > 90% of our sponsors have declared their projects a success, we can't guarantee project success.
The project should be able to be completed in about 6 months by a team consisting of 4-5 undergraduate electrical engineering students, aided by a faculty advisor and by a representative of the sponsor. Each student is expected to spend 8-10 hours per week working on the project for the five months.
The project should be able to be done with knowledge students already have and/or knowledge that they can reasonably acquire during the course of the project.
The project should have a substantial design component so students gain practice in as much of the design process as possible.
The project may be hardware-based, software-based, or a combination. Projects with a mechanical component may use teams with both ECE and Mechanical Engineering students.
Any company, community organization, or individual desiring to submit a project proposal should submit a proposal online. You may also send a project description to
Andrew Greenberg
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Portland State University
1900 SW Fourth Avenue ste 160
Portland, Oregon, 97201
Email: adg4@pdx.edu
Phone: 503-708-7711
Student work is usually owned by the students. The capstone program can be an exception to this rule: sponsors can request ownership of the IP generated by the students when working on the sponsor's project. This includes having the students and faculty advisors sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to work on proprietary and/or confidential projects.
Some things you can do to help ensure successful completion of the project:
Get the student team on-boarded in December
This includes signing NDAs, signing IP agreements, getting the students badge access to buildings and labs as necessary, evaluation boards procured, etc. The students will set up team communication (Slack, Teams, etc) and revision control (Git, Github, etc), unless you provide them these services.
Figure out a Project Location
Most companies provide a cubicle or other workspace, computer accounts as needed, and appropriate access privileges. Some companies have put the teams through the entire new-hire process to help get them used to the company products, rules, culture, etc. If space at the company is not possible, we have shared spaces available for student teams as necessary, and of course labs such as the Capstone Lab and the Electronics Prototyping Lab.
Work with the students to start defining the goals of the project
In most cases the projects are only loosely defined at this point. The understanding is that after some research and discussion, the team will actively help define the actual problem that will be solved.
Actively and candidly participate in evaluation of the students’ work
It is important that the quality of the student's work be evaluated on the same basis as that of any new part-time hire. This will help set expectations for the students, and help the faculty advisor set grades at the end of Winter and Spring quarters.
Maintain clear and constant communication with the PSU Faculty Advisor
Although the student team will be your primary contact, making sure the faculty advisor is in the loop is an important part of a successful project.
Visit us!
If you have not already done so, stop by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at PSU to meet us and to get a tour of our facilities. You can call or e-mail Andrew or talk with your project’s faculty advisor to arrange a convenient time for a visit.
A good way to keep in touch is to join the capstone mailing list! We only send out 2-3 announcements per year, and this way you'll know when submissions are opened!