Bring solutions to life with engineering skills and leadership practices
The two-semester capstone experience will challenge you to integrate your technical and leadership skills to innovate in a dynamic, results-driven environment.
Working with a team of fellow students, you will engineer solutions using cutting-edge technology and methods to address crucial industry, market, or societal needs.
Partner with a UC Berkeley faculty member and their research team to develop sensor-based tele-health platforms for smartphones. Collaborate with NASA to design and build the next generation of planetary robot rovers. Work with a Fortune 500 Company or a new start-up to apply data analytics and machine learning to mission-critical problems.
It has been incredible to see these MEng students immerse themselves in all the innovative, challenging problems that they’re working to solve. Watching these engineers apply lessons from the classroom to real-world technical problems really highlights the power of the program.
Scott Ziegler, MEng’ 22 (ME)MEng Alumni Capstone Advisor
The capstone program is a nine-month experiential course integrated into the Master of Engineering (MEng) degree program. Projects are facilitated by the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership within the College of Engineering.
The capstone program combines leadership breadth with technical depth in innovative engineering curriculum addressing present-day industry challenges.
We are currently seeking inquiries for the 2025-26 academic year. Share a few details below and we’ll be in touch soon.
For any questions please contact Jennifer Mangold PhD, Chief Innovation and Learning Officer jmangold@berkeley.edu.
Partner-led capstones happens when a project uses exclusively (or almost entirely) corporate resources and intellectual property versus university resources and intellectual property. This capstone model has a faculty liaison. At the discretion of the industry sponsor, students may work from the company’s physical location or remotely but the industry point person will be expected to communicate with the team on a regular basis.
No fees are required of Capstone industry partners to participate in the 2024-25 program.
Students work in a two-semester course integrating technical and leadership skills on innovative faculty or industry projects with a team of fellow students. Teams engineer solutions using cutting-edge technology and methods to address crucial industry, market, or societal needs.
Each student on a faculty or industry team is expected to spend approximately six hours a week on the project in the fall and nine hours a week in the spring semester.
In a partner-led capstone, industry advisors take the lead in driving project direction. At a minimum, industry advisors provide students with real-world business and technical challenges to help them apply what they are learning in the classroom: technology, communication, business and leadership skills.
Specific commitments will be established and agreed upon among students, faculty, and industry advisor(s) at the beginning of each project. Industry advisors are not responsible for grades and will have a faculty contact who will manage academic affairs.
General Capstone Advising Timeline:
March – May: Draft the capstone proposal
June: Finalize proposal and resources
August: Team selection
September-December: Weekly advising
December: Interim assessment
January-April: Weekly advising
Late April:/early May: Projects due and Showcase Event
Team size ranges from three to five students, chosen from seven engineering departments:
Bioengineering (BioE)
Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS)
Industrial Engineering & Operations Research (IEOR)
Materials Science & Engineering (MSE)
Mechanical Engineering (ME)
Nuclear Engineering (NE)
In a partner-led capstones, industry sponsors should expect to provide all of the necessary resources (laboratory equipment and software) required for the students to work on the capstone project.
We discuss project ideas and begin accepting proposals in March for the following academic year. Formal capstone proposals are due in June. Teams will start work on the projects in early September through the following May.
Jennifer Mangold, PhD
Interim Director of Experiential Learning jmangold@berkeley.edu
