Capstone teams consist of three to five students. The size of each team is curated to optimize team dynamics and provide rich opportunity for developing effective leadership and teaming skills. Capstone project work is carried out within the 5-unit course, ENGIN 296. There are two major project types: faculty projects and partner projects.
Faculty Projects
Students working on faculty projects are advised by PhD candidates, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty from the UC Berkeley College of Engineering.
There’s a variety of different project configurations. For example, Capstone teams may:
- Be the principal lead of a particular project (e.g., Self-Driving E-Bike Design)
- Work alongside another MEng team on a broader project (e.g., Commercializing Nanocarriers)
- Be a part of an MEng project lab where three or more MEng teams collaborate on a multi-dimensional project (e.g., Patent Analysis Using Machine Learning)
- Be a part of your advisor’s research program or lab and work together with their PhD students (e.g., Million Hands)
- Work with your advisor’s partners outside the university (e.g., Windpower: Wildsafe, Effective, Quiet)
Partner Projects
Students working on partner projects are advised by a technical expert from a partnering organization.
There’s a variety of partners. MEng Capstone teams have worked with:
- Industry (e.g., General Motors’ Energy Impact of Autonomous Vehicles)
- National Labs (e.g., LBNL’s Numa: A Low Power System for a Developing Word)
- Academic Institutions (e.g., UCSF’s CalCardiac: Classifying Heartbeats Using Machine Learning)
*All partner projects have a faculty liaison: a representative from within the UC Berkeley College of Engineering who will ensure progress with periodical check-ins.
Deliverables
Each Capstone team will have three types of deliverables:
- Technical deliverables are set in consultation with the advising team. These vary from project to project and may include: prototypes, experiments, data analyses, etc.
- Project management and teaming deliverables are shared by the MEng cohort. These include: project charter, project plan, stakeholder engagement strategy, etc.
- Reporting deliverables are shared by the MEng cohort. These include: final report, final presentation slidedeck, project brief, Capstone showcase, etc.
