Current Newsletter
2022-23: Issue 04
We are in the home stretch for this year’s Capstone projects. We will start the next round of in class department presentations next week and wrap up the semester during the first week of May.
Here are a few key upcoming dates for this year’s sponsors and others interested in the program:
- May 1-5 – Target window for end of semester project reviews
- May 4 – College of Engineering Senior Design Expo
- May 5 – Due date for the sponsor project feedback survey
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING SENIOR DESIGN EXPO
I would like to invite you to the NDSU College of Engineering Senior Design Expo on May 4th from 12-3 in the Memorial Union Ballroom.
The project teams are starting to prepare for the expo by working on large scale posters (36”x48”) what will detail why their project is important, what they built, and how they built it. They will get some feedback from their peers on the poster and their two minute project story in our upcoming in class department presentations. The teams will also be set up to demo their project and discuss it at the appropriate depth for the audience at the expo.
After the expo, the students will vote for a “best-in-class” project. I am asking them to visit several projects outside of their department during the expo. The best-in-class project should exceed client expectations, deliver a significant set of capabilities, and have contributions from all team members with excellent teamwork. Strong communications skills are going to be essential for a team to be a top overall project. After factoring in instructor and sponsor feedback, I will communicate the top three projects to the class in the week after the expo.
If you are a project sponsor, the expo will be a great opportunity to see how your team summarizes their project as well as survey other projects. If you are considering a project in the future, this will be a chance to get ideas for projects. And you’ll get to see a cross section of the many talented students in the NDSU College of Engineering.
Please look for me and introduce yourself if we haven’t met in person. I look forward to seeing many of you there!
GUEST LECTURES
Following a pattern established in previous years, we dedicated two class sessions to guest panels that addressed topics that were prioritized by the students in the class. The goal was to give the class, all of whom are seniors that are graduating this spring or next fall, some perspective on career options and growth.
The Young in Career panel had four NDSU graduates that have less than 7 years of experience. They focused on interviewing, new employee experiences, and the importance of having a growth mindset. Thank you to Tyler Losinski of Doosan Bobcat, Austin Tadman of Digi-Key, Matt Schumacher from Microsoft, and Noah Moberg from Bushel for this excellent session.
The Specialization panel had four experienced professionals that have spent a significant portion of their career in a specialized area of software development (UX, quality, analytics, etc). This group also brought a breadth of experience as managers and other roles. They discussed the importance of finding your passion, the role of mentors, and finding a company and manager that will help you grow. Thank you to Jeanette Haugen from Kaseya, Roger Serfling from John Deere, Terrill Slaughter from Scheels, and Kevin Honeyman from Microsoft for our second excellent session.
LOOKING AHEAD
As the semester comes to a close, I will be asking for survey feedback from the students as well as the mentors and the primary contacts at this year’s sponsor organizations. The information from the surveys that you will fill out will provide student feedback for this year and influence the program as we start to look forward to 2023-24.
Thank you in advance for feedback on this year’s projects and the overall program. And thanks again for all the support this year!
Please drop me a note at david.froslie@ndsu.edu if you have any questions.