An Invitation

The Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at Brigham Young University seeks to develop a world class program in business operations, project management and leadership for graduate and undergraduate students. This program leverages the unique abilities and experiences of our students that will truly allow them to reach their potential as leaders that can lift and inspire others in a technically challenging and global professional world.

A key element to the success of this program lies in the opportunity to develop technical as well as teamwork and leadership skills through the completion of a sponsored capstone project. We invite you and your company to join with us in helping to make both our undergraduate and graduate programs world class in developing tomorrow’s global leaders by providing opportunities for our students to work on real-world problems where true innovation and an understanding of today’s technical and operational challenges can be learned and practiced.

Propose a Project

Engagement Contract, Non-Disclosure Agreement

Thank you,

Andy Kirby

Commitments of Project Sponsor

• Development of a project idea by September 1
• A $5000 Education Grant Donation
• Work with graduate student to develop a defined scope of work Sept-Nov and review RFP that will go out to undergraduate teams in November
• Optionally review proposals of undergraduate teams
• Interact and provide guidance to teams as time permits and as desired
• Review final reports in April
• Attend year-end presentations of all student teams in April as available.

Commitments of BYU Project Team

Develop an RFP with a scope of work that the sponsor can provide input.

Assign a graduate student mentor and a team of 3-4 (generally) undergraduates to complete the scope of work outlined in the RFP. These students will work 6-8 hours per week over the course of the winter semester to complete the project (300+ man hours).

Assign a faculty member with appropriate technical background as an advisor.

The Civil & Environmental Engineering Capstone Program is an educational program designed to help students learn the practice of engineering. Because students are responsible for the work on the project, we can only provide the work of the BYU faculty and students "as is". Students are not considered agents or employees of BYU. BYU makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the condition, accuracy, originality, merchantability, or fitness for purpose of any products, processes or intellectual property developed in the program.

What Makes a Good Project?

• Involves multiple technical (environmental, geotechnical, structural, transportation, water resources) and/or practical (economic, political, cultural, social, ethical, health & safety) constraints.
• Have multiple alternatives to consider
• Students could possibly make a site visit, or able to view through pictures and maps (virtual visit)
• Designed for teams of 3-4 students to work on
• Be able to complete with ~300 student man-hours
• Involve some aspects of creativity and innovation (take advantage of things they may have learned which might not be part of your practice)
• Fit the technical expertise of the students + something that stretches them (require some research)