About Senior Project
What Senior Project Asks Students To Build
Senior Project is a capstone experience built around planning, teamwork, stakeholder communication, and delivery. Students move from early orientation through scoped execution and end the year with a public showcase of the work.
Program Overview
A year-long capstone with real constraints
Success in Senior Project no longer starts the day before fall quarter. Orientation, team formation, and project planning all happen before teams are fully underway.
Orientation and expectations
Typically, late in the winter quarter, and sometimes as late as the first week of spring quarter, an orientation meeting for Senior Project takes place. It may be online, in person, or both, and it is recorded for students who cannot attend. That meeting highlights the requirements, procedures, and expectations for the year.
Choosing the right team
Students in non-research projects are expected to form teams of 5 to 6 students. Team selection matters. Students are encouraged to work with classmates they already know they can collaborate with well, especially from prior software engineering and project-based courses. Research projects are typically solo efforts with separate requirements covered during orientation.
Project sources and stakeholders
Project ideas may come from external stakeholders or from students themselves. Student-proposed ideas still need a legitimate stakeholder sponsor, usually a domain expert or end user, and entrepreneurial projects may have additional requirements. The program team can help determine whether a proposed project and stakeholder are appropriate.
Timeline
Senior Project from launch to showcase
The sequence below maps the major checkpoints students move through during the capstone.
Start thinking ahead
Begin planning and thinking about potential projects and team members.
Project alignment
Be aligned with a project and prepare to start working.
Begin work
Kick off the project and start executing against the initial plan.
First quarter presentation
Finish the first quarter and present progress, scope, and execution.
Second quarter presentation
Finish the second quarter and present the next major checkpoint.
Final presentation and competition
Finish the third quarter and close out the year with the final presentation and competition.
Prepare early, then build with confidence
The strongest teams start organizing before the project work becomes urgent. Review the available materials, then browse current and past project examples.