About – Capstone Marketplace

The Capstone Marketplace connects undergraduate engineering teams with experts from the Department of Defense to work on challenging design projects.

“Capstone Marketplace” showcases ideas from the Department of Defense and other government organizations as topics for student design projects

Funds are provided for each project that may be used for material, components, non-capital equipment, student travel, and other student expenses. Typical project funding is from $3K to $5K for a two-semester effort

Government “Subject Matter Experts” and Capstone Marketplace managers mentor student teams as they develop their hardware and software prototypes

Students enhance their problem solving, teambuilding, and leadership skills by participating in the Capstone Marketplace.

Capstone Marketplace managers select research topics that provide technical challenge to students, balancing the needs and expectations of government customers.

Capstone Marketplace emphasizes students’ “doing” and “building”. Students are required to design, develop, test, evaluate, and demonstrate their prototypes.

Our mission

Capstone Marketplace connects a future U.S. engineering workforce with Subject Matter Experts in the DoD and other government agencies to solve challenging national security research problems. University students use “systems engineering” thinking, innovative technical approaches, and multidisciplinary methods in their project teams, as they design and build prototypes that bring new capabilities and value to sponsors.

How it works

Previous research has demonstrated that students who work on multidisciplinary Capstone Marketplace projects have increased interest and proficiency in applying basic systems engineering methods to their designs.

1. Sponsors give us problems

The Capstone Marketplace works with the DoD and other government organizations to identify technology needs that form the Capstone Marketplace “Research Topics” posted on the website prior to each academic year.

2. Faculty Advisors and Students express interest in research topics

The Capstone Marketplace proposal process starts with Faculty Advisors and/or students reviewing available research topics. Either faculty or students can submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) on topics they want to pursue; it’s not required for a student team to be formed when an EOI is submitted. Multiple EOIs on separate topics can be submitted. The ideal Capstone Marketplace team consists of senior undergraduate engineers working on multidisciplinary topics; teams may include students from different year groups, and in different majors such as business or operations research. Graduate students may participate on undergraduate Capstone teams.

3. Requests for Proposals and Capstone awards

Capstone Marketplace managers match EOIs with research topics and send a Request for Proposal (RFP) for each qualifying EOI. Proposals are evaluated with sponsors; marketplace managers announce awards as the Fall semester starts. Two–semester projects are preferred. Universities receive Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contracts from the System Engineering Research Center (SERC) at Stevens Institute for each student team. Faculty and students are required to be knowledgeable of contract terms, schedules and deliverables; this introduces students to basic procedures for contract work common in industry.

4. Government sponsors support teams

Government sponsors typically interact with student teams once a month to review project status, address questions and provide feedback.

5. Faculty Advisors guide student teams

Capstone Marketplace managers match the research objectives and deliverables to each university’s design course syllabus. Capstone Marketplace teams are required to document development activities and project status as per their contract. Capstone Marketplace personnel provide mentoring as available; university faculty are responsible to guide the student teams’ academic work.

6. Student teams present results

Typically, student teams will present project status and results at two interim reviews (at the mid-point of each semester) and in major reviews at the end of each semester. The final review, usually at the conclusion of the Spring semester, includes demonstrations of prototypes, presentation of a final report and project technical data. At the conclusion of each final review, project information is shared with government customers and archived at Stevens Institute.

7. Sponsors provide feedback

After each review, sponsors provide feedback and assessments of each team’s performance.

8. Intellectual Property

Capstone Marketplace projects are government–funded research and development. SERC resources Capstone Marketplace teams with DoD funds that are provided to universities through subcontracts. Although the university, faculty, or students can declare and own intellectual property (IP) developed on projects, the government retains the right to use any Capstone-funded intellectual property IP without royalties. Details on government research and IP are provided in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). (Contact the Capstone Marketplace for further information).

9. Conclusion

At the conclusion of the Capstone Marketplace project, each government customer can choose to recover prototypes, technical data, or residual materials, or these items may be retained by the universities for follow-on Capstone Marketplace activities.

I think overall the best part of this learning process was just getting to see what a real-world design project looks like. We were working with a client, so to speak, and had to take their considerations and recommendations, and then go back and run several iterations of our design process, making adaptations and things like that. It was really cool for me to learn how to work with the team, our internal team and external team and knowing that it's okay, if the first design doesn't quite meet everyone's preferences, it's okay to make adaptations.

Audrey Kile ‘22, B.S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

It was the first time we got to do real engineering work. All the issues we had are the kind of issues engineers face on a daily basis, so I really thought that it was the closest you can get to an actual engineering job being in college. I learned a lot, I am an engineer at heart, and so it was really helpful to me because I plan to continue engineering in the future, even as a doctor.

Neil Jayarajan‘22, B.S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

I think that was a really good opportunity for my team to practice doing that which is a life skill that's applicable in home life and in professions. We all talked about it at the end of the semester, and that was one of the highlights of the end of our senior year for sure, getting to come together and finally get the chance to apply everything we've learned in college to a real world project. So I definitely think all my team members agree. This was a really wonderful opportunity for us.

Audrey Kile ‘22, B.S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

I took on the organizational point of contact role and had to make connections and synthesize the information that we're collecting from different sources. Being involved more on the project leadership aspect of the team helped maintain overall efficiency and organization. It's just being in a team teaches you a lot, about team engagement, team management, teamwork.

Shruthi Srinivasan ‘22, B.S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

Audrey Kile‘22, B. S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

Neil Jayarajan‘22, B. S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

Audrey Kile‘22, B. S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

I took on the organizational point of contact type role and had to make all of these like connections and synthesize the information that we're collecting from all these different sources. Being involved more on the project leadership aspect of the team helped maintain overall efficiency and organization. It's just being in a team teaches you a lot, about team engagement, team management, teamwork.

Shruthi Srinivasan‘22, B. S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin

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Previous research has demonstrated that students who work on multidisciplinary Capstone Marketplace projects have increased interest and proficiency in “system” approaches, applying engineering methods and team management in building their solutions.