Skip to main content
Civil and Construction Engineering
Civil Engineering Capstone Program

Getting Started

Contact the CCE Capstone Program today to express interest and get your name on a list of potential sponsors. Download the Capstone Project Submittal Form and put together your ideas, even if they are rough at first. We need to have these forms returned each year by May so that we can refine them and be ready for the start of the academic year.

Key elements for a successful Capstone Project include:

  • Engineering tasks that are desirable/important to your organization and cannot be completed with limitations on time, budget and/or other resources. Ideas that can be implemented/deployed to enhance your company's profitability and competitiveness. For example, projects to show-case or demonstrate concepts for time and cost-saving in process improvement; improved effectiveness of product maintenance/repair procedure and control; enhanced product construction and manufacturing efficiency, etc. (Note: Innovative and proprietary ideas may be protected via a pre-defined Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA, prior to start of project)
  • Unless otherwise stated with a non-disclosure and/or export controlled agreement between sponsoring organization and BYU prior to start of project, project team members can openly discuss project related information in class, with faculty and/or professional advisors.
  • Stretch the students in technical and non-technical skills beyond textbook and allow them to experience "real world" project execution and management prior to entering their field of practice. These skills will help reduce risks and uncertainties involved in hiring new college graduates by providing a "preview" on how they interact and perform in a professional (vs. textbook) environment at minimal costs to the company.
  • Scope to fit about 350 to 400 man-hours. Typical projects to be completed within a given academic year that include Fall and Winter Semesters. Fast track (i.e. one semester) and long duration projects (i.e. theses, dissertations, and degree-projects etc.) are welcome and open for consideration and negotiation.
  • Provide opportunities for teamwork, development of interpersonal, organizational and communication skills (i.e. documentations, reports, presentations, team/customer interchanges etc.) that will be beneficial to the company/organization as they hire these new graduates that have already experienced projects similar to what they will be doing in practice upon graduation. This can potentially help reduce training and others overhead costs involved in hiring new college graduates.
  • Interact between project team and customer regularly (i.e. design reviews, interim reports, status reports and feedbacks etc.). Frequency and duration TBD between customer and corresponding project team. This provides a training ground for future customer/vendor interactions prior to entering the workforce at your company.

Additional project considerations to help foster students' ability to tackle challenges while encourage innovative solutions:

  • Involve multiple technical (environmental, geotechnical, structural, transportation, water resources) and/or practical (economic, political, cultural, social, ethical, health & safety) constraints.
  • Have multiple alternatives to consider
  • Invite students to make actual or virtual site visits
  • Involve aspects of creativity and innovation
  • Tasks that require research and team work/discussions