• Needs Finding and Market Analysis
• Intellectual Property and Protection
• FDA Design Controls
  • Needs, Requirements, and Specifications
  • Design Verification, Design Validation
• Testing and Experiment Design
• Risk Analysis and Quality Controls
  • Design, User, and Process FMEA
• Clinical Strategies
• Regulatory Strategies
  • 510(k) documentation, PMAs, NDAs
  • GLP, ISO and ASTM standards
• Reimbursement Strategies
• Prototyping and Stakeholder Feedback
• Design for Manufacture
• Business Plan
  • Business Models, Economics, Funding and Operations
• Professionalism and Ethics

1. Project should solve a specific need for your company
2. Project should not be of immediate concern to your company assuming a minimum development cycle of two semesters (8 months)
   • Project definition: April to June
   • Project execution: late August to mid-April
3. Discrete projects should involve design and manufacture. For example the project could involve:
   • A physical prototype for a new product or product derivative including the associated manufacturing processes
   • The redesign of an existing product including a physical prototype and the associated manufacturing processes (redesign for cost, quality, performance, productivity, automation, etc.)
   • A physical prototype for a new or redesigned test equipment or manufacturing process
4. Continuous process projects should involve design, modeling and analytical prototyping
5. Project scope should be approximately 600 engineering hours (spread over an 8 month calendar period)
6. Student teams (5 to 7 per team) will be responsible for the success of the project
7. Student teams will be coached by experienced engineering faculty (6 to 8 hours/week)
8. Your company must be willing to dedicate some time of liaison engineer to the project (2 to 3 hours/week)
9. Liaison engineer should:
   • Have management support
   • Have vested interest in the success of the project
   • Be willing to work with students
10. Projects should preferably not be classified or highly proprietary. If required, students/faculty will sign nondisclosure agreement
11. Students should be able to publicly present their work with the mutual agreement of company
12. Types of projects appropriate for industry sponsorship:
    • Lower-priority projects for which the company lacks resources.
    • Projects that can be completed in nine months or less.
    • New products (hardware or software) or product improvements (new features, packaging or materials).
    • Development of a testing procedure and/or testing equipment.

• April – July (prior to fall semester start): Project Identification and Selection
• August: Project Initiation
• Sep – Dec: Focus, Definition, Specification, Concept Generation, Design Selection
• Dec: Project Design Reviews
• Jan – Apr: Strategy, Protection, Prototyping, Verification, Validation
• Apr: Final Project Report and Presentation

Personnel – Sponsoring companies must identify at least one liaison to act as an industry advisor to the project team. The industry advisor would be the company contact for the project team, advise students on issues involving customer needs, provide technical expertise and advice, and approve design concepts and prototypes. Faculty advisors will be responsible for administrative issues (grading, meeting deadlines, monitoring the progress of the team, dealing with team personnel issues, etc.) and providing guidance to the team.

Time – Industry advisors must be available to discuss project requirements, customer needs, and potential designs. Communication can be in-person or by phone, e-mail or video conference. The advisor determines the frequency of communications.

Travel – The sponsoring company determines the need for travel.

Funding – Funding needed for prototype development and testing will vary depending on the scope of each project. Please contact us to discuss project funding.

Resources – Students have full access to the University of Florida’s computer network, libraries, faculty expertise and engineering laboratories including the Department’s Cellular Engineering Laboratory, Biomedical Instrumentation Laboratory and Capstone Design Maker Space. Sponsors may wish to provide additional resources if desired.

Protection of Proprietary Information – Sponsors may request that members of their project team sign non-disclosure agreements to protect confidential and trade secret information.