• You are invited to participate in the ME170 Stanford ME capstone course, designed to be the culmination of the Stanford BS ME degree.  Collaborate with the Stanford ME department, where for 6 months, 4-person project team(s) made up of Senior-year Mechanical Engineering undergraduates work on a problem that you provide in the general theme of clean energy, transportation, health, and/or sustainability while engaging with community

• Give Stanford ME undergraduate students an awareness and appreciation for how they can make a difference in the world

• You will have the opportunity to interact with some of the most talented and creative undergraduates

As part of the Industrial Affiliate Program for Teaching Design Thinking, participation in ME170 offers the following

• Promotes engineering research and development in an area of interest for you and your organization.  Many student teams can engage in different aspects of a common problem

• Opportunity to provide a project prompt that 1-3 student teams could work on.  Engage with the student team(s) that are working on project(s) you provide

• Provides your organization with additional opportunities and exposure to Stanford faculty and undergraduate students, establishing a relationship with Stanford University.

• Opportunity to recruit students that you can observe for the 6-month course sequence

• Course instruction is by Capstone Course Director/Lecturer Jeff Wood, with 25 years industry experience leading organizations in product development and manufacturing, and Shoshanah Cohen with 20+ years industry experience in supply chain and consulting organizations, with a growing list of guest speakers. The students receive excellent guidance regarding their projects.

• Connects you to end-of-quarter presentations to see all projects conducted in the course, which are open to the public

• Provides access to final reports written by the teams, which are posted and publicly available at Stanford Libraries

• Corporate Affiliate: $30,000 per year (100+ emplyees)

• Startup / Small Business Affiliate (<100 employees) : $5,000 per year

• Non-profit, NGO, Government Affiliate: $0

• The course runs Autumn and Winter quarters every year, with enrollment expected inthe 55-65 student range, resulting in 13-16 project teams.

• Projects are done by students as a learning experience, contracts for course projects are not allowed. Projects should enable students to explore a problem that the partner is interested in researching, but is not on any critical path or an expected part of any partner deliverable.  Students are not working “for hire”.

• At the beginning of the term, the projects will be presented to students and they will nominate the projects on which they want to work.  Liaisons providing projects will need to be present at the second day of class to pitch the projects to the students.

• This is a 4-unit course, meaning that students are each expected to spend ~12 hours/week on the class, so students have approximately 30-35% time dedicated to their project. Students will generally be placed into teams of 4 for each project.

• In accordance with university policy, students must be able to openly present their work to classmates, instructors, guests, etc

• Any intellectual property or data resulting from these projects will be retained by Stanford. 

• It is the intent of the Faculty member(s) responsible for ME170 that all class results will be presented in an open public forum at the conclusion of the course.  

• Teaching staff are prepared to meet with the affiliate team to flush out details of project proposals, to ensure they are suitable for the students and the course.  To get the conversation started, affiliates are requested to complete a project brief using the template provided below.  

• The success of a project in ME170 depends greatly on the existence of an effective company liaison from the affiliate.  It is important that the liaison is willing and able to meet with the student team regularly, serves as the point-of-contact for the team, and has project background information to assist in developing engineering requirements and concepts.  Liaisons should plan on a face-to-face meeting with the student team during the initial stages of the project in the first few weeks of the first quarter, and at least two other meetings over the course of each quarter.  These can be in person or video meetings.   Liaison is also requested to attend course design reviews held at the end of each quarter. 

• We are accepting proposals for the 2025-2026 year.  If you are interested in participating in the class, please reach out to Jeff Wood at jwood11@stanford.edu to get the conversation started!  To define a project please complete the project brief below.

• For any given class year, we are looking for initial project briefs by the end of July, and finalizing briefs and arrangements by the end of August

• Project Brief Form