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Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
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Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Capstone Design

Industrial Engineering 4410 Capstone Design is a one-semester senior design course in which students engage in industry projects and practice industrial engineering under the guidance of an experienced Registered Professional Engineer/professor, as well as engineers and managers from a sponsor company. The objective of these projects is to provide economic value to the company and a practical education to the students.

Students working in Capstone Design laboratory on senior design project.

Project Description

Each project has four stages of design:

  1. Problem Definition
  2. Current State Analysis
  3. Future State Collaborative Design
  4. Final Project Validation/Delivery

Students perform in-depth quantitative analysis and design throughout the entire project. This includes extensive on-site and web/phone company involvement to ensure success. As a group, students are required to devote 60 hours per week for 14 weeks to the project.

We look for projects with an economic impact potential of over $100,000. Projects can be in workplace design, 5S/VSM and LEAN, time estimation and process engineering, factory layout, scheduling, inventory analysis, product/process quality analysis, process simulation, ergonomics, data mining and statistical analysis, manufacturability analysis, economic modeling, VB.NET/VBA/SQL programming and industrial automation CNC/RFID/BarCode/PLC Prog/Transducer selection.

Project Impacts

In Spring 2025, 12 projects were performed at 12 different companies across Iowa. These companies were asked to provide their personal realistic estimate of the economic value of their student projects. The project values ranged from $170,000 to over $1.5 million with an average value of $546,000. Total impact for the semester exceeded $6.0 million. Since these projects cost $5,000 per company, the average returns are substantial. Companies agreed to implement between 89% and 100% of student recommendations with an average implementation rate of 93%. Over 85% of our students have industry experience, and 25% have international experience, prior to working in Capstone. These engineers are mature, experienced and motivated, and receive extensive oversight.

IMSE capstone student project outcomes in the news:  Iowa State University Students Drive $3.1 Million in Improvements for Nestlé Purina

Project Examples

Click here to view all of the videos

Mary Greeley Medical Center (MGMC)

This team worked on a project for Mary Greeley Medical Center (MGMC) to fix identified shortcomings in the emergency medical services department. The primary objective was to improve the quality of patient care provided by EMS through an improved logistical structure.

What is my commitment?

Companies work with faculty to define appropriate project scope. A project manager needs to be assigned making sure they have the time, ability and resources to provide students access to data and facilities in a timely manner.

Students and faculty are able to sign NDA and IP agreements. Payment, subject to your satisfaction, is a specified dollar amount per project (covers travel and up to a certain dollar amount in materials). As this is a fee-for-service project, the fee is not a tax-deductible expense.

Contract Documents

How do I get started?

Contact one of us.