ECEN 403 and 404 are part of an industry-sponsored program which is an introduction to the design process and project engineering as practiced in industry. Student teams apply the design process by developing a project proposed by industry sponsors through test and evaluation.
Company Benefits
Students become intimately familiar with products of the company, which they advertise when discussing their project with other students. The company gets a semester-long look at some enthusiastic students, and projects are demonstrated at the end of each semester and judged by industry leaders. The greatest benefit is the company gets an innovative design.
ECEN 403 and 404 employ the WebCT course management internet portal. This provides each Capstone team with a discussion room in which the students can post questions and upload reports. Industry members use online access to answer students’ questions, gauge the progress of projects and also actively participate in guiding the student teams throughout the semester.
Past sponsors include:
- Texas Instruments
- Los Alamos National Labs
- Sandia National Labs
- Samsung
- Raytheon
- TaiPro
- SATOP
- ChampionX
- Priority Power
- Dell
- BT Cox
- Powell Industries
- Monico
Sponsorship Details
The Capstone Design course is a real-world engineering project from the sponsor company. The sponsor assigns a company liaison (mentor) for the students, ideally, an engineer willing to work with students and provide equipment training if necessary. The sponsor also provides an equipment loan if the project requires special equipment. WebCT Course Management enables online access to sponsored projects. A standard donation of $15,000 is required for two-semester projects (one team usually comprises of 4-5 students; this gets reduced if more teams get sponsored). Funds support department scholarships, travel expenses and other student activities.
Program Supervisor
Stavros Kalafatis
- Associate Department Head, Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Professor of Practice, Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Office: WEB 205E
- Phone: 979-458-8429
- Email: skalafatis-tamu@tamu.edu
