Submit your ideas for a Senior Design Project!

We seek projects that aim to solve real-world problems. All projects should reveal an engineering challenge in industry, government, non-profits, small businesses, start-ups, or everyday life. Selected projects will be presented to rising seniors at the beginning of the spring semester junior year.  Students are expected to provide their project preferences by 1 August.

During the Fall semester, teams evaluate concepts to meet client requirements, propose a delivery plan, and build first prototypes. In the Spring, teams test and deliver the completed HW/SW system to the client.

Examples of recent projects can be seen here.

The project proposal link, shown below, is open year-round. However, we close the list of projects on July 1 for projects to be considered in that academic year.  Financial support is not required but many sponsors have donated or loaned equipment or materials in support of their project.

Many of the proposals we receive require skills outside of Mechanical Engineering.  BU MechE works collaboratively with both BU Electrical and Computer Engineering and Bio Medical Engineering in interdisciplinary projects.  Feel free to propose projects that require skills from multiple disciplines.

Sponsors may participate as much or as little as they prefer.  Students will need to connect with their sponsors early in the fall semester.  During these meetings teams will learn more about the project and specific engineering requirements.  It is important that the project sponsor has a champion and point of contact who is readily available for questions.  Teams will prepare interim and final project reports and documentation to include engineering drawings, programs, test reports, as applicable.  All documentation will be given to the sponsor at the end of the course.

If you would like to propose a project we will need the following information:

  • Name of the organization proposing the project
  • Contact Information
  • A short project title
  • Brief description of the project
  • Description of the technical problem
  • Description of the anticipated technical skills
  • Expected deliverables at the end of the project
  • Project support. This is not required but some sponsors provide material or loan equipment
  • Intellectual property concerns

Please follow the link to our Google Form where you can submit your project information.

For further questions please contact:

Anthony B Linn Ph.D. PE
Professor of the Practice
Capstone Coordinator
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Boston University
110 Cummington Mall, Boston MA 02215
ablinn@bu.edu