Sponsor a Project

Ignite Innovation: Sponsor a Senior Design Project!

Put your company in front of the Gonzaga community and help shape the direction of engineering and computer science by becoming a sponsor of a Senior Design Project.

Why Sponsor?

Inspire the Next Generation

Your sponsorship exposes students to a practical, industry-driven experience. Our Senior Design Program bridges the gap between academia and industry, giving students the support to thrive in a real-world setting.

Discover New Talent

As a sponsor, you gain exclusive exposure to upcoming graduates—an exciting chance to connect with potential talents with the Gonzaga blend of technical skill and critical thinking.

Utilize Creative Solutions

Leverage the creativity and technical training of 3–5 students focused on your specific needs. Your custom project benefits from their fresh perspectives and dynamic ideas.

Contact Ted Zhang about a Senior Design project proposal

What's the Sponsor Timeline?

Organizations are welcome to reach out to the program at any time to indicate interest in participation. After the first of the year, members of the Capstone Committee begin to reach out to many returning and new organizations to determine interest in participation for the following fall semester.

The committee may work with proposing sponsors to provide guidance, revise proposals, and adjust elements of projects to better match the programs needs and capabilities.

 

Proposals are matched with the needs of the program for the upcoming year based on information from students, faculty advisors, staff, and Design Advisory Board members about their experience, interests, and specializations. Sponsors will be notified of acceptance during the summer.

Common reasons projects are not-selected:

  • Multiple proposals are too similar.
  • The scope of the project is too large or too small.
  • The project content does not match the interests of the students.
  • The sponsor does not have the flexibility or infrastructure needed for the program.
  • The program does not have faculty/staff/facilities to support the project.
  • The sponsor is too restrictive with respect to intellectual property or disclosure rights of the participants.
 

A project agreement between Gonzaga's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the sponsoring organization will establish the terms and responsibilities of the project for both parties. SEAS can work with a sponsor to modify the boilerplate contract provided by the university’s general counsel or sponsors may provide their own contract under certain circumstances, but such action may be considered in evaluating and accepting a project.

While SEAS does have the ability to coordinate non-disclosure agreements and intellectual property agreements between sponsors and project participants, the program cannot require any student to engage in one of these agreements. The selection process may give preference to projects which do not require such agreements to ensure the program contains enough projects for all students who do not wish to sign away such rights. While some parts of the project may be protected, a project which has excessive restrictions is unlikely to be feasible, since students must have the ability to publicly present progress on their project throughout the program.

 

Descriptions of each project are published 1–2 weeks prior to the start of the fall semester so the incoming senior class can review and vote for the projects they would like to work on. Due to the public nature of these descriptions, sponsors should clearly express any aspects of the project they do not want included in the description. Members of the Capstone Committee may reach out to the sponsor to review the details of these descriptions for accuracy and content prior to posting.

 

Your dedicated liaison maintains regular interaction with the students, offering constructive feedback, valuable guidance, and unwavering support throughout the entire project. It's a collaborative journey where your input shapes the future of the project.

 

What Makes a Good Project?

Projects should have one or more of these elements:
  • Wide-ranging or conflicting issues or have no obvious solution
  • Novel problems which contain many parts or sub-problems
  • Need for multiple disciplines or involve multiple diverse stakeholders
  • Potential for significant consequences across contexts
  • Projects should require the team to perform analysis, experimentation, and/or the interpretation of data
  • Projects should require students to use the analytical and applicative skills they have learned in their discipline and/or gain new knowledge of the subject
  • Projects should require consideration of public health/safety/welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, and economic factors
  • Projects should require evaluation of ethical and professional responsibilities on a global, economic, environmental, and societal level

The program can work with a sponsor on all of these factors.

Some suggestions:

  • A prototype, development, or design study of a new product, infrastructure, process, or service
  • A redesign for improvement of an existing business or operation aspect
  • An existing project within a sponsor's organization that can be parallel-pathed by a student team
  • A test or research development involving design
  • A student design competition from a recognized organization

What Do Liaisons Do?

The sponsor is expected to provide one or more employees to serve as liaisons, meeting with the team approximately weekly and managing requirements. This liaison is typically a technical representative who can provide professional feedback, support, and accountability. Depending on the project, the liaison may even choose to work alongside the team to tackle challenging tasks.

Why is there a Sponsor Fee?

Projects accepted into the program include a fee within the project agreement. Fees may be adjusted from year to year; contact the program for fee specifics and possible waivers.

Fees are applied to three general categories:

  • Direct costs of supplies, research, and activities required by the specific project
  • CEDE overhead for the five annual events -- Meet Your Team Social, three presentation/review sessions, and the Design Expo/Senior Celebration
  • Elective opportunities, such as outside speakers, student-proposed projects, and information sessions about senior design for first-year, sophomore, and junior students

Past Sponsors

  • 2Barrels
  • Avista
  • Boeing
  • City of Spokane
  • Coffman Engineers
  • David Welton DDS
  • DOWL
  • Dragon Jacket
  • Dwight Brayton
  • Edo Floats
  • Fire Armada
  • Garco/WSDOT
  • Gonzaga University
  • Gravity Jack
  • Horrocks Engineers
  • Itron
  • Jetseal
  • Kaiser Aluminum
  • Medcurity
  • Michels Trenchless
  • Orebaugh Enterprises
  • Pangeon
  • Phillip Pintor
  • Tatitlek Technologies, Inc
  • Treasury4
visitors hold a prototype created by a mechanical engineering team

Learn more about Gonzaga SEAS Senior Design program