Design team poses together

SECCM Capstone Design Projects

'The SECCM capstone design experience is the culmination of our students’ education. They utilize the knowledge they have gained over their entire curriculum to address real-world, open-ended problems while building leadership, teamwork, and communication skills.' – Dean Robert Griffin

The Capstone Design Project is a fundamental element of senior year for Engineering, Computer Science, and Construction Management majors. From August through May, students collaborate in teams, integrating math, science, computer science, construction management, and engineering principles into a comprehensive, client-based design project. Student teams work with faculty advisors and industry mentors to design and fabricate solutions to open-ended problems and present their projects to experts at professional conferences and competitions.

Real Projects for Real Clients 

This is what the majority of our graduates do: Work on a team to meet the needs of a client.

Students gain practical work experience by working with real clients on real projects. The process builds skills they will need  in their careers: Meeting clients, translating their requests into actionable ideas, and collaborating on a team to design and fabricate solutions. 

Students stand with best undergraduate project certificate at NEWEA conference
Senior Design Team (right to left) Tarek Aldawalibi, Daniel Petrovic, Andrew Gaughan, Evan Raffi, and Annelise Boylan (not pictured,) stand with Nick Tooker (Student Activities Committee Chair, left) as they celebrate winning Best Undergraduate Student Poster at the 2019 New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) Annual Conference for their Community Based Capstone Project: A Study and Reflection on Stormwater Management Maintenance. Raffi's introduction to NEWEA led to his first post-grad job. 

Networking and Mentorship 

Students network with leaders in their fields of interest as they present their projects at professional conferences and competitions, building connections that lead to careers. Our students regularly place at regional, national and international competitions and conferences. 

Construction Management students work closely with industry advisors throughout their Capstone Projects, then formally present their plans to an industry panel for feedback.

Students attend the Society of Women Engineers conference

Making a Difference 

Students work on projects that benefit the local community, including many that are in use at RWU.

Launching Careers

Ashley BosseStudents find job placements through the skills they learn and industry connections they build during their Capstone Projects. 

Engineering Major Ashley Bosse '20 secured her first job as a Water Resources Engineer with Fuss & O’Neill, a civil and environmental engineering consulting firm, in part because of her Senior Design Project. Her team designed a solution to stabilize erosion in Barrington, Rhode Island, giving her experience in environmental site assessment and permitting. 

“The Senior Design Project gave me a lot to talk about in my interview. It gave me a sense of confidence. Fuss & O’Neill was starting a similar project in Barrington, so we were able to go back and forth about that. They were considering a lot of the ideas my team had discussed."

– Ashley Bosse '20
 

Computer Science Major Michael Patient '07 worked with a specialized system-design platform as part of his Senior Design Project, which led to his career as a Software Engineer at SpaceX. 

"SpaceX recruited me based on my LabVIEW programming experience. LabVIEW was introduced to me at RWU during my senior design project, which tied for 1st/2nd at the Water and Environmental Research (WERC) Consortium."

– Michael Patient '07

Recent Projects Include:

  • Analysis and Design of Stormwater Controls in the Pawtuxet River Watershed
  • Design and Construction of SECCM Labs Lobby Chime System
  • Designing a Highly Adjustable ASME Competition Human Powered Vehicle for a Two Foot Rider Height Difference
  • Developing a Marketing Analytics Platform to Determine the Effectiveness of Marketing Campaigns in social media applications
  • Developing a system to teach Critical Path Method for developing a construction schedule and then Determining Approaches to Reduce Construction Times
  • Development of an Automated Wearable Pulse Oximeter
  • Dundery Brook Flood Assessment and Mitigation
  • East Bay Bike Path Pedestrian Bridge Evaluation and Redesign
  • Efficient and Reliable DIY Wind Turbine 
  • A Game that Allows a Player to Find Their Location Based on an Unknown Route, a GPS System, a Road Map, and Images
  • Henry J. Winter Elementary School build
  • Keeping Nemo Alive: Design and Implementation of a System to Control EMI in Aquarium Systems 
  • Ice Detection Device
  • Low-cost Automated Microarray System for Biomolecular Analysis
  • Modernizing Software and Hardware to Determine Fluid Pressure in a Pipe System
  • Optical Air Quality Monitor 
  • Pizza Delivery Robot 
  • Redesigning the Built World: An Adaptive and Inclusive Playground for All Users
  • Redesign of the Timber Foundation Supporting the Palmer River Bike Bridge in Barrington, RI
  • Renovation of the Shawmut Design & Construction Providence Office space 
  • Selective renovations of WPI’s Civil Engineering Building
  • A System that Allows a Remote Viewer to Direct Where a Presenter “Aims” Their Phone Camera
  • Surgical Device for Degenerative Tendon Repair
  • Tent Plaza Design
  • Timber Bridge Design 
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicle 
  • Using a 3D Camera System to Take Virtual Tours of Construction Projects