The document summarizes how companies and faculty can propose projects for Marquette University's senior design course. It explains that all engineering seniors are required to work on a year-long team project, with project ideas coming from sponsors or faculty. Teams of 4-5 students from different engineering fields work on each project. Sponsors provide a 1-2 paragraph description to recruit students. If a project is selected, sponsors meet periodically with the team and provide 1-4 hours of support per week. The goal is for students to experience an engineering project lifecycle while producing potentially useful work, though results cannot be guaranteed.

1. Marquette Engineering Senior Design
How Can You Participate?
Dr. George Corliss, George.Corliss@Marquette.edu
All seniors in the College of Engineering and in Computer Science are required to take a
year-long senior design course. The course teaches some engineering and career skills, but
the primary driver is a team project. Project ideas come from industrial sponsors or
faculty. We form teams of about 4-5 students, often from several engineering fields, to
work on the problem. The course guides them through the project lifecycle of determining
customer needs, target specifications, preliminary designs, final designs, economic analysis,
and prototyping.
Roughly, the Fall semester develops the design and ends with a prototype and a proposal
justifying project continuation. There are specified project deliverables due every 2-3
weeks. During the Spring semester, the team builds a working prototype of their design.
We make them submit documents as might be expected on a somewhat larger project, and
there are other tasks in the class, so you get about 5 hours work on your project per week
from about 4-5 students for about 14 weeks in each of two semesters, or the equivalent of
about 7 months of half-time work from an entry-level engineer, plus the expert advice to
the students from the course instructors and the team's faculty advisor, with whom they
should meet weekly.
If you take on a team, you and we would prepare a 1-2 paragraph description of the project
to attract students to request your project. Usually, we have about twice as many projects
proposed as we have students to staff, so it is important that your project description strike
students as attractive. If your project is staffed, depending on the nature of the project,
you'd meet with the team periodically during the semester. As you might expect, the more
time and involvement you give them, the more likely they are to produce a project that is
practically useful. Average time commitments vary in the 1 - 4 hours per week range.
One potential obstacle is confidentiality. Our students present their work in class and in
forums that are open to the public. We can keep some details private, but if the concept
must be kept secret, that is a show-stopper for us. If details are sensitive, but the big picture
can be discussed openly (e.g., by the students at their job interviews), we can work out
something agreeable.
The goal of the Senior Design course is to guide the students through the major features of
the lifecycle of a non-trivial project and to give them a taste of what they might expect in a
typical engineering project. The best projects are one that you care about enough to
provide active sponsorship, large enough to provide a year's challenge, and small enough to
make meaningful progress in a year. The ideal project is NOT well specified; part of what
the students need to learn is how to work with a customer to determine real needs.
While we have a pretty good track record of delivering quality work, we do not offer
guaranteed results. Hence, we advise that you NOT ask us to do a mission-critical project,
unless our students are working side by side with your engineers at every stage of the
project.

2. Sometimes, the projects from which the sponsor gains the most and the students learn the
most are blue-sky, high-risk projects. If a project has high potential, but low probability of
success, you probably would not staff it. However, if we make the cost essentially zero, the
cost-benefit calculus changes, and the project may be attractive. If we fail, you lose nothing.
If we come up with something, you WIN, possibly BIG.
If your project requires special equipment or software not available in our labs, we expect
you to cover the additional expenses.
If you have any interest at all, I would be pleased to talk with you. We try to have projects
set by August 1, so April-May (or earlier) is a good time to begin discussing projects for Fall.
Dr. George F. Corliss
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Marquette University
Office: Olin Engineering 522
414-288-6599
George.Corliss@Marquette.edu

3. 2011-12 Marquette Senior Design Projects
Biomedical Engineering
B 1: (Service Learning) Engineering World Health: Pulse Ox Phantom
B 3: (Service Learning) Modular Human Powered Nebulizer Design
B 5: (Dental Project) Rubber Dam Tooth Clamp for Dental Procedures
B 6: Medtronic: Lower Cost Physiologic Signal Measurement Device
B 7: DePuy: In-vitro Heating Device to Accelerate Polymerization of Bone Cement
B 10: (Assistive Technology Project) Electronic Fishing Reel
B 14: Assistive Technology for Bathing
B 17: (Assistive Technology Project) RASS: Rehabilitation Articulatory Speech
Synthesizer
B 18: (Assistive Technology Project) Device to Assist in Independent Feeding
B 23: GE Healthcare: Image Quality Phantom Development
B 24: (Assistive Technology Project) Adapted Aisle Chair for Airlines
B 25: (Assistive Technology Project) Acidosis/Alkylosis Detector
Electrical and Computer Engineering
E 46: MU GasDay: Mobile Access
E 51: Rockwell: Metrics Reporting Consolidator
E 55: MU DPS LIMO Tracking System
E 57: MU DPS LIMO Request via Text Message / Mobile App System
E 61: Cubesat Satellite
E 74: Golf Grip Pressure Training Aid
Information Technology
I 58: Milwaukee Police Department: IT Asset/Inventory Management
I 60: Parking Spot Locator Mobile Application
I 62: Mental Health America (MHA) of Wisconsin Donor Tracking
I 64: Memorialization Web Application
Mechanical Engineering
M 72: Hospira: New Design for a CarpulectR Holder
M 73: Sentry Equipment Corp.: Thermal Shutoff Valve Redesign
M 78: Ultra-Efficient and Safe Wood Stove and Exhaust System Costing Less than
$10 for Use in Developing Countries
M 83: Direct Supply: Dynamic Pressure Shifting Bed/Mattress without High Peak
Pressures
M 85: Hybrid Gas Dryer and Water Heater Design
M 86: Same as M85: Hybrid Gas Dryer and Water Heater Design
M 87: Green Whale Technologies: Wind-up Car
M 92: (Assistive Technology Project) Adult Jogging Stroller
M 93: Green Whale Technologies: Maintaining Optimum Catalytic Converter
Temperatures