Corporate & Foundation Relations

Sponsor student projects

Companies have the opportunity to sponsor College of Engineering student capstone projects and Master of Science in Technology Innovation students’ launch projects.

Engineering capstone projects

The College of Engineering Industry Capstone Program brings together UW students and companies to tackle real-world, multidisciplinary engineering problems. Sponsors bring in unsolved problems from their businesses and support a team of creative, talented senior engineering students in developing solutions. Participating companies pay a $15,000 sponsorship fee and designate an employee to serve as a technical mentor the student team. The team is also supported by a College of Engineering faculty mentor. The technical mentor helps the team understand the problem in depth and meets with the students weekly to keep them on track as the project progresses. Projects typically start in winter quarter and run for two quarters.

Interested companies work with faculty leads in participating College of Engineering departments to define suitable capstone projects. The companies then identify a mentor, sign a simple sponsor agreement and pay the sponsorship fee.  You can learn more here.

Master of Science in Technology Innovation launch projects

The Master of Science in Technology Innovation (MSTI) is preparing the next generation of innovators in connected devices. The MSTI is offered by an interdisciplinary group of leading UW faculty in partnership with the Global Innovation Exchange, a collaboration between the UW and Tsinghua University in China, with support from Microsoft.

As part of the MSTI degree requirements, students undertake a launch project. Students work in small teams to take an idea from concept to prototype and get a product ready for market. Students either work on an idea developed by their team or they tackle a challenge facing a company.

Benefits

  • The opportunity to assess student talent and recruit for jobs.
  • Low-cost means to get a fresh look at a challenging problem, perhaps one that the sponsor doesn’t have the resources to tackle in-house.
  • A nonexclusive commercial license to any project intellectual property developed by the student team or UW employees.
  • An excellent professional development opportunity for a company employee who mentors a team.
  • The chance to get better acquainted with the University and the many other opportunities for industry engagement.

Contacts

Contact the UW Corporate Relations team, College of Engineering Corporate & Foundation Relations or the Global Innovation Exchange for more information