Industry Sponsored Design Competition: Opportunities And Challenges For A Capstone Senior Design Project

Industry-sponsored product development competitions pose both opportunities and challenges for senior design projects in engineering and engineering technology programs. Capstone design faculty recognize the value of industry-sponsored projects for involving students in genuine practice of the design process, and participating in major competitions can result in substantial resources, supportive sponsors, and enhanced motivation for students. However, such competitions may also impose timing, process, materials, fabrication, and performance constraints that are not always encountered in a more typical capstone design project. This paper discusses a Western Michigan University senior design project that was part of a national hydraulic bicycle design competition sponsored by Parker Hannifin Corporation. Innovative product design based on specified design criteria led students through each step of a complete design process, and the design project eventual ranking in the national competition. Incorporating long-term performance criteria of a product at an early stage of the design cycle was beneficial, and this experience is discussed. However, the team encountered a number of challenges in working through the many constraints of the competition. Because such competitions typically work from a corporate rather than an academic timeline, prototyping, design refinement, fabrication of the final product, and a performance-based competition may be overwhelming for a two-semester project. Variability of the design team, integration of multiple design concepts in the final design, component fabrication, and performance issues related to selection of available industrial components in lieu of specified components in the design are also discussed. All of these specific conditions affect the implementation method of a traditional engineering design process and must be addressed by senior design faculty. Thus, while industry-sponsored competitions offer exciting potential for capstone design projects, it is important that faculty, students, and sponsors recognize and respond to the constraints and challenges they are likely to face in successful completion of these projects.