Spring '25 Engineering Capstone Projects
The end of a semester in college brings many exciting things with it: the promise of summer, the final days of class and, for our engineering seniors, capstone project presentations.
A capstone project is a final academic assignment that allows students to apply the knowledge and skills they have gained during their academic program to a real-world problem or topic. Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi engineering seniors spent their final year of college in two courses where they completed the necessary criteria for these capstone projects: Project Management (ENGR 4240) and Capstone Projects (ENGR 4370). During the Project Management course, students developed detailed proposals that outlined the project’s specifications, including a timeline, schedule, and budget. Students used these proposals for the following Capstone Projects course, where they applied their knowledge to execute the proposed projects by building, testing, and documenting their project outcomes.
Each capstone team consisted of four to six students from the following disciplines: civil engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and mechanical engineering technology. This spring, six teams presented their capstone projects to a panel of judges and peers. The judging panel consisted of TAMU-CC faculty and staff, as well as members from various community organizations and businesses. Not only were the students graded on their presentations, but the top three teams also received awards at the Hooding and Cording ceremony, which took place in the final week of school.
Awards were given in two categories: Business Plan Competition and IEEE Corpus Christi Section Technical Presentation Awards. In the Business Plan Competition, the winning team presented a project titled “Helicopter Blade Lift Support.” This team successfully built a cart with a winch that allows for better transportation of helicopter blades and reduces the need for extreme manual labor when transporting these blades.
In the IEEE Corpus Christi Section Technical Presentation Awards category, the first-place team presented their project, “Testbed for Enabling and Testing IoT Swarms of Unmanned Systems for Reconnaissance and Surveillance.” This team addressed the current challenges that drones face when navigating complex environments without GPS by developing a collaborative ground and aerial system.
Other projects involved communications systems for firefighters, improved pool pumps, enhanced pavement for runways, and more. Each student group worked hard and used their differing strengths to create unique and impactful projects that could make a big difference in the real world.