Capstone Project Sponsor Guide

We invite proposals from campus partners, nonprofits, government, and industry for 15‑week projects led by teams of 3–5 Computer Science and Cybersecurity students. Projects must be internet‑hosted or device‑based; students do not build brochure‑style websites.


Overview

Scope

  • Internet‑hosted systems (cloud apps, APIs, data backends)
  • Device‑based systems (embedded, IoT, robotics, sensors)
  • Excludes: simple marketing/brochure websites

Team & Duration

  • Teams of 3–5 students
  • 15 weeks per semester
  • New or existing projects welcome

Iteration & Reviews

  • Collaborative requirement discovery
  • Feature prioritization & incremental delivery
  • Three presentations: kickoff, midterm, final

Project Requirements

Technical Fit

  • Internet‑hosted and/or device‑based
  • Feasible within 15 weeks
  • Meaningful functionality (not a brochure site)

Documentation & Deliverables

Students provide sponsors with:

  • Design decisions & architecture notes
  • Source code and build/deploy instructions
  • Operational / usage documentation

Intellectual Property & Access

  • Provide NDA or confidentiality terms up front if necessary.
  • Students may leverage existing code, open‑source libraries, and commercial SDKs/APIs to accelerate progress.
  • If there are commercialization goals, be prepared to discuss licensing and long‑term maintainability.

Sponsor Expectations

Weekly Engagement

  • Meet weekly (in person or virtual) for feedback & guidance
  • Provide timely decisions and access to stakeholders
  • Share domain context and sample data where possible

Collaboration

  • Help refine requirements and set realistic milestones
  • Identify risks, constraints, and success criteria
  • Enable access to codebases, repos, and sandboxes when relevant
Note: Student assignments are preference‑driven; a project may not be matched if it receives no student bids.

The University of Alabama     |     Lee J. Styslinger Jr. College of Engineering