Senior Design

Engineering firms are looking for students like ours - students with real world skills, research experience, and an aptitude for communication.

Senior Design Project:
Wireless Door Opener

An electrical & computer engineering senior design team is helping individuals with disabilities open doors using a wireless connection. The 2007-08 team designed and built a low-cost, wireless electronic system capable of interfacing with the current push-button system to open a door automatically when a person using a wheelchair approaches. The entire system was designed from scratch in two semesters for less than $200, resulting in a working prototype that is being tested at Colorado State University.

During their senior year, our engineering undergraduate students participate in a capstone senior design project. They display and present their work at Engineering Days. This unique experience allows students to develop practical, hands-on skills and teaches them how to succeed in an integrated, interdisciplinary engineering design environment. Senior design challenges students to think creatively and empowers them to take responsibility for all phases of their project, from design and manufacture to documentation and marketing. Explore a few examples of senior design projects, regional and national team competitions, and the academic products that result from these projects.

The senior design experience includes presentations by industry professionals who share information about the engineering workplace. Students typically work in small teams with advisors and real clients, simulating the environments of small, medium, and large companies. Some students, depending on their department and project, participate in major intercollegiate project competitions that require travel to compete with other engineering students in events that test the ingenuity and robustness of their student projects.

Upon graduation, our students find that they are able to successfully compete for engineering positions and, once employed, they are well prepared for today's workplace.