Partner With Capstone Experience

The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas needs industry partners to support senior capstone projects. Each academic year, teams of four or five seniors will be assigned to one of the projects with one student serving as the team leader. The experience is coordinated by Richard Cassady (cassady@uark.edu), University Professor of Industrial Engineering, students also receive technical advice from all industrial engineering faculty.

Formation of Teams

Dr. Cassady uses an application process to select the students who serve as team leaders. An auction-type process is then used to match each team leader with a project. Dr. Cassady assigns the remaining students to teams. Each team makes initial contact with their industry partner no later than the first week of September.

Intellectual Content of Projects

To provide a more specific description of the content of the capstone experience, 15 specific capstone experience outcomes are used to guide the activities that are part of the experience.

Although every project is different, and all projects have evolving requirements:

  1. Each team will describe the mission of their industry partner organization. For large organizations, the team will describe the mission of the segment(s) of the organization that is of specific interest to the project.
  2. Each team will describe the concerns of their industry partner organization that are motivating their project.
  3. Each team will describe in detail any formal and/or ad hoc processes, procedures, policies, etc., that are currently in place and are related to the concerns motivating their project.
  4. Each team will identify and/or define one or more metrics that can be used to determine their success in addressing the concerns motivating their project.
  5. Each team will assess and evaluate how their industry partner organization currently is performing relative to the project-success metrics.
  6. Each team will make recommendations for addressing the concerns motivating their project and use the project-success metrics to assess and evaluate these recommendations.
  7. Each team will provide deliverables to their industry partner organization that facilitate the implementation of their recommendations.

In achieving capstone experience outcomes 1-7:

  1. Each team will use project management software to track and document their activities and hold frequent meetings to receive support and feedback from their industry partner organization and the faculty coordinator.
  2. Each team will make use of the academic literature related to their project.
  3. Each team will make extensive use of computing skills and at least two of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics.
  4. Each team will learn and apply industrial engineering skills beyond their industrial engineering coursework.

During each semester:

  1. Each team will communicate their findings in well-organized and well-written documents.
  2. Each team will communicate their findings in well-organized, well-rehearsed and effective oral presentations.

Throughout the experience:

  1. Each student will prioritize team goals, be reliable, have a positive attitude, demonstrate respect to teammates, be proactive about team activities, approach teamwork collaboratively, behave professionally and think strategically.
  2. Each student will be responsible, respectful, fair and honest.

Expectations of Industry Partners

A successful capstone project requires extensive and timely support from the industry partner. The industry partner is expected to provide the team with a point of contact (and a backup point of contact) who can meet with the team (in-person or remotely) at least every other week to help the team identify and interview stakeholders, obtain data, assess the validity of their industrial engineering analysis, review course milestones and project deliverables, etc. The industry partner is also expected to cover any travel expenses incurred by the team during the project and to participate in the team’s final presentation near the end of the project.

Industry partners are expected to provide project ideas that are consistent with the department’s expectations regarding technical content. Historically, meeting teams’ data needs has been the most difficult expectation for industry partners to meet. Industry partners should consider the availability of real and relevant data when submitting project ideas. While the department is not opposed to teams collecting data as part of their project activities, the preference is that the majority of project activities related to data be focused on analysis rather than collection. Specifically, the preference is that projects require teams to deal with large, messy, data sets.

Limited scope also has been a challenge associated with some past projects. For example, developing a forecasting tool or developing a software tool to automate a manual process are worthy project activities. However, neither is enough on its own to meet the department’s expectations for a capstone project. The department wants students to take the next step to understand how the predictive model or the software tool impacts strategic or tactical decision-making.

Dissemination

Once a potential industry partner expresses interest, issues related to non-disclosure and intellectual property will be addressed via a separate email communication. When necessary, the university and the industry partner enter into an agreement that covers non-disclosure and intellectual property. The agreement covers all university faculty and staff. Student teams sign a read-and-acknowledge form related to this agreement.

The audience for almost all capstone experience documents and presentations is limited to the industrial engineering faculty and staff, the students in the capstone experience and the industry partner associated with the project being discussed. However, there are a few public activities associated with the capstone experience. First, teams make a final, fall semester presentation that is open to the entire industrial engineering student body. The industry partner has the responsibility of approving any information that their student team disseminates in this presentation.

Second, the experience concludes with the Industrial Engineering Capstone Symposium in late April or early May. At the symposium, which will be open to the public, teams participate in an interactive poster session and deliver detailed technical presentations about their projects. The industry partner has the responsibility of approving any information that their student team disseminates at the symposium.

Third, at least one team will be selected to compete for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Senior Capstone Design Award. To enter this competition, each selected team submits a written executive summary, a poster and a set of presentation slides regarding their project.

Typical Milestones

The following list summarizes the major milestones associated with the experience. Additional details are provided to industry partners throughout the experience.

August to early September Teams contact industry partner for the first time
Early November Industry partner submits team assessment 1
Early December Industry partner submits team assessment 2
Early December Industry partner approves fall, public presentation content
Early December Teams make fall, public presentations
Mid-February Industry partner submits team assessment 3
Mid-March Industry partner submits team assessment 4
Mid-March Industry partner approves team’s symposium website material
Mid-March Industry partner agrees to list of final project deliverables
Late April Industry partner submits ABET assessment
Late April Industry partner approves public symposium content
Late April Industry partner approves final project deliverables
Late April/Early May Annual IE Capstone Symposium


Submission of Project Ideas

If you are interested in being one of our industry partners, please contact Richard Cassady at cassady@uark.edu. Dr. Cassady is willing to meet with you (in-person or remotely) to discuss the capstone experience in more detail. Each year, our goal is to have our industry partners identified by mid-June.