Senior Design
The Mechanical Engineering (ME) Senior Design program provides students with realistic experience practicing engineering with local and regional industries.
The program provides learning-by-doing exercises that integrate the concepts students have studied in the classroom. They tackle real world projects to smooth the transition into employment as an engineer.
Students take two senior-level design classes (ME 489 and ME 490) in the last year of mechanical engineering curriculum at The University of Alabama. During this sequence of course, students conduct a professional design and implementation study for an industrial client.
Students are grouped into teams and work together on a client based project. The projects assigned to the students are those that would normally be assigned to an entry level engineer. Teams do background investigations, purpose designs and/or modifications, conduct feasibility studies, and may build or modify an existing device or system.
The students are expected to provide at least 10 hours each per week on their project. Faculty members are available to the students as project advisors. The ME Senior Design program also focuses on the development of professional writing and presentation skills. An initial project proposal is required, as well as a final report detailing the results of the project which is submitted to the client. Throughout the semester, status report presentations are given, as well as a final presentation at the end of the semester.
Past Capstone ME design projects have been conducted in the following areas:
- Development of design tools
- Prototype design, construction and testing
- Lab testing – design, measurement and analysis
- Manufacturing system design and optimization
- Energy conservation studies
- Code and regulation compliance designs
- Feasibility and alternative studies
For more information about our Senior Design program or if you are interested in sponsoring an ME Capstone design project please fill out the ME Senior Design inquiry form below.