The Capstone Project Experience
In the final two quarters of the program, students gain real world experience working in small groups on a data science challenge facing a company or not-for-profit. At the conclusion of the capstone project, sponsoring organizations are invited to attend a formal Capstone Event where students showcase their work. Capstone projects typically span a wide range of interests, including energy, agriculture, retail, urban planning, healthcare, marketing, and education.
Examples of Previous Capstone Sponsors
- Adobe
- Amplero
- Boeing
- Biblioteca Italiana Seattle
- Civil & Environmental Engineering, WSU
- Clobotics
- Equal Opportunity Schools
- iSchool, UW
- JLL
- Kids on 45th
- Microsoft
- Milliman
- Seattle Children’s Hospital
- Tiller
- Urban Planning, UW
- Zillow
Examples of Past Projects

Visualizing Gentrification in Seattle
MSDS students Deepa Agrawal, Angel Wang, and Erin Orbits created an interactive mapping tool to visualize gentrification in Seattle.
Sponsor: Urban Planning, University of Washington

Using Artificial Intelligence to Monitor Inventory in Real Time
Capstone researchers Havan Agrawal, Toan Luong, Vishnu Nandakumar, and Tejas Hosangadi explored new methods for optimizing supply chains and product placements to improve sales.
Sponsor: Clobotics

Predicting Soil Moisture with Machine Learning
MSDS students Samir Patel, Rex Thompson, Michael Grant, and Dane Jordan developed machine learning models to accurately estimate soil moisture using satellite imagery.
Sponsor: Civil & Environmental Engineering, Washington State University