From fresh ideas to real returns

Forty-two senior engineering teams. Thousands of hours of work. Behind every project is an industry or research partner counting on the students' creativity and skills. By sponsoring the University of Delaware's senior engineering design projects, organizations gain fresh ideas, tangible progress on real challenges, and early access to the engineers they might hire next.

The Interdisciplinary Senior Engineering Design Program is a combined capstone course that enrolls all seniors in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and brings in students from other disciplines to supply the skills required by each project. Over the course of the fall semester, small teams collaborate with their sponsors to devise solutions to real-world challenges.

The 2025 efforts were on full display at the Fall Engineering Design Showcase on Dec. 11 in Clayton Hall.

"Every project delivers meaningful insights and time-saving progress that sponsors can build upon, providing companies with fresh ideas and tangible results they can put to use immediately," said Pamela M. Norris, dean of the College of Engineering. "Sponsors also gain early access to emerging engineering talent, working closely with students and seeing firsthand how they approach real-world challenges."

Offering fresh perspectives

"We love students because they have new ideas," said Darryl DuBre, co-founder and director of operations at Marins Inc. "They're not jaded, engineering-wise, as to what can and can't be done."