(254g) The Care and Feeding of Industry Mentors for Senior Design

Over the last 23 years, the author has evolved from offering the same “cookbook” senior design problem to everyone in their 100+ person class, to soliciting and managing a portfolio of original projects each year such that each team has a unique design problem, most of which are industry-sponsored. This approach requires that the faculty member serve more as a project manager with a large stable of both industry and faculty mentors to manage, and the success of these mentor interactions has a large influence on the experience of both students and industry mentors during the capstone course. This presentation will discuss the mechanics of project recruiting and scoping to ensure that each project meets ABET expectations for capstone design. Project communication and selection will be detailed, and clearly stated expectations for both mentors and students will be shared. The development of deliverable descriptions and grading rubrics will be outlined. The trade-offs of having industry mentors pay for project sponsorship versus having them serve as technical mentors and graders will be discussed. The importance of consistent communication with mentors will be emphasized. Finally, the challenge of maintaining mentor relationships over many years and making the process sustainable will be explored.