Seniors in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University enroll in the Capstone Senior Design course to apply their education to real-world problems currently facing businesses. The students gain valuable experiences while sponsor companies benefit from the faculty’s research and expertise.
Zane Gruznina, CMS deployment manager at Cameron, a Schlumberger company, collaborated with a team during the fall 2016 semester in which the team was introduced to a very specific problem regarding implementation progress tracking.
Through weekly conference calls and on-site visits, the students’ solution for Gruznina will provide the ability to focus people’s time on analytics and implementation, rather than manual data mining.
“The students programmed a tool that is user friendly, intuitive and easy to use,” Gruznina said. “We were limited to the use of Microsoft tools, so that the end users in the manufacturing locations do not need to learn a new program.”
They were able to develop the system based on the programming skills acquired in classes at Texas A&M, coupled with the detailed processes they learned in their undergraduate curriculum, to implement the system. Their solution provided an alternative to this specific tracking method that will not require additional training on the plant level.
“Interacting with a team which is eager to provide a solution was the most beneficial part of the experience,” Gruznina said.
Individual and corporate sponsors supply projects for student teams to design, develop and test prototypes over a 15-week semester. Teams of four to five students meet with and discuss areas of concern with the sponsor company, then propose methods for verifying, analyzing and solving those problems. Students submit a final report at the conclusion of the semester containing observations, analysis and recommendations to the company.
For more information about sponsoring a senior capstone design project, contact Jose Vazquez at 979-458-2385 or vazquez@tamu.edu.