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Best Project Winner - Spring 2005 Seat Adjuster Tester for ARCCA Inc.
Program Description
Interdisciplinary teams of students tackle problems sponsored by industrial clients. This clinic challenges our students to apply the knowledge and tools acquired during their undergraduate education to the solution of real engineering problems. The clinic provides a unique opportunity for industry to partner with Penn State to help educate the next generation of "World Class Engineers". Students have at their disposal state-of-the-art facilities for design, prototyping and production in the Learning Factory. Participating departments include Chemical, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering.

Since January of 1995, over 650 projects have been completed for more than 160 industrial clients.
91% of past sponsors report they are satisfied or highly satisfied with project outcomes.

Benefits to Industry Sponsors:
  • Fresh ideas, solutions to real problems
  • Low cost, low risk investigation of “back-burner” ideas
  • Identifying talent for employment
  • Corporate exposure on campus
  • Project management experience for your junior staff engineers
  • Improving engineering education at Penn State
  • The mental stimulation of interacting with bright, energetic, creative young minds
  • Networking with other companies and Penn State faculty
Attributes of a Successful Project:
 The ideal project is the design of a product, service or process that involves technical analysis, financial justification, communication, prototyping, and verification. This is an excellent opportunity, for a minimal investment, to investigate that “back-burner” idea which has been sitting on your desk. Descriptions of completed projects can be found here. Specific attributes include:
  • Should solve a specific need for a company
  • Company must dedicate both financial support and time (a contact person) for the project
  • Project should not be in the company's critical path
  • Should involve both design and manufacturing (not just paper design)
  • Should not be classified or highly proprietary
  • Should have appropriate scope for a 14 week semester and team of 4-5 persons (~400 person hours effort)
  • Company should have some experience in product development
Expectations and Deliverables:
Each project will typically involve a team of 3-5 students over a 14 week semester, under the supervision of a faculty member. This equates to approximately 400 person hours of effort. Since results are dependent on many variables, no guarantees can be made other than the students will give it their best effort. From follow-up surveys, >90% of our sponsors are satisfied or highly satisfied with their project results.
Sponsor Requirements:
A successful project requires that the sponsoring organization assign a motivated individual to oversee and interact with the students throughout the project duration. The most critical factors to a successful project are communication and commitment. This requires a minimum commitment of 1-2 hours/week as well as attendance at two on-campus events.
Intellectual Property Issues
Confidentiality: In order to protect their competitive positions, sponsors may require each team member to sign a confidentiality agreement as a condition for working on their project. This agreement (click here) obliges the students to observe due diligence in protecting the confidentiality of company-provided information (data, drawings, design intent, etc). Sponsors who have not yet filed a patent, and wish to avoid public disclosure of an invention, are advised to select this provision.

Intellectual Property Ownership: For an additional administrative fee, sponsors may also request ownership rights of all intellectual property that is developed by the students during the course of the project. Projects in this category require students to assign their intellectual property rights to the sponsor (click here for IP assignment form). In addition, sponsors who have not yet filed a patent, and wish to avoid public disclosure of their invention, are highly advised to also request the confidentiality agreement. (see previous section)

Financial Committment
The project commitment fee is a donation of $2500 per student team. The cost for a second team working on the same project is $1250. Since this is a tax deductible, charitable contribution to the University, no guarantees can be made of project outcomes. All that can be promised is best effort. Each team is provided a working budget of $1000 which covers basic expenses such as supplies, materials and car travel to the sponsor’s location. Should additional resources or equipment be needed to complete the project, students are expected to justify them by written proposal to the sponsor. The remainder of the fee covers the operating costs of the Learning Factory.
Depending on the location and size of the sponsoring company, financial assistance may be available from the Industrial Modernization Center, or the I99 Regional Industry Micro-Research Grants. Non-profit and community service organizations may also be eligible for financial assistance.
How to Submit a Project
All that is needed to initiate a project is a one page description. The easiest way to provide this information is to use our electronic form . Projects must be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to the beginning of each semester.

Future Dates
  • 15 August 2007 - Deadline for submitting a Fall 2007 project
  • 30 August 2007 - Fall Project Kickoff @ Nittany Lion Inn
  • 13 December 2007 - Project Showcase XXVI
  • 15 December 2007 - Deadline for submitting a Spring 2007 project
  • 17 January 2008 - Spring Project Kickoff @ Nittany Lion Inn
  • 1 May 2008 - Project Showcase XXVII
For More Information: please contact:
Tim Simpson, Ph.D.
Penn State University
314 Leonhard Building
University Park, PA 16802
(814) 863-7136   tws8@psu.edu

22 February 2007 by J. S. Lamancusa