Sponsor a Final Year Project

The deadline for project submission for 2020 projects is Friday, December 20 2019.

This means you will need to have engaged with the College of Engineering, and indicated your intention to sponsor a project, before this date to secure a project slot. There will still be the opportunity to fine tune your project idea after this date with the College of Engineering, but you will have ensured your project has the chance to be allocated to a team of final year engineering students.

It is simple to engage with the College of Engineering to indicate your intention to sponsor a project in 2020.
1. The best and easiest way is to just jump online and complete our project sponsorship form
2. or email engindustry@canterbury.ac.nz with a simple outline of your project:

a. Introduction – Describe your business
b. Project Overview – Describe the problem you are aiming to solve, or product you are looking to create, or research you want to do.
c. Project Objectives (executive summary of up to four practical, achievable deliverables, one for each potential student involved in the project)

Why sponsor a final year project?
Final year projects are great opportunities for industry to engage with soon to graduate engineers, potential future recruits. This is your company’s chance to work with a group of students (potentially multi-disciplinary depending upon the project) to do some analysis, feasibility studies, and develop prototypes.

For our students this is an opportunity for them to work with real industry clients and work on real-world problems, and to meet potential future employers.

Need inspiration?
We have collated the posters produced by the students this year, as part of the assessment process, into a brochure. This brochure shows the vast range and diversity of projects that were completed this year. Have a look and imagine what final year engineering students could be working on in 2020 for your company.

View the brochure here.

How much does it cost?
To be a project sponsor we ask for a contribution to the College of Engineering. This contribution cost varies from $2500 per student to $10,000 for a group of students (please note that some engineering disciplines only run projects in groups). There is also a cost in the sponsors time to regularly meet with the students and take an active role in guiding the student(s).

In return the sponsor will receive:
• Up to 1000 hours of student work (up to 250 hours for single student projects).
• Up to 30 hours of academic staff supervision.
• Up to 80 hours of technician time.
• Use of software, fabrication, measurement, testing facilities, and specialist equipment.
• Confidentiality is designed into the programme and students sign a nondisclosure agreement. Project outcomes will only be shared publicly if and when the sponsor agrees.

The use of four-person teams makes it possible to undertake projects with a reasonably large scope. Where the project allows, teams can be multidisciplinary. Team’s project value can be, in some cases, equivalent to a $40,000-$100,000 development effort.

You can see more about the costs on page 11 of our industry brochure.

When does it happen?
The Final year projects run from February through to October, with a mid-year presentation happening in May.

You can see more about the timings on page 12 of our industry brochure.

Need more information?
Check out the College of Engineering Industry page for more information https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engineering/industry/ or contact Grahame Burgess direct grahame.burgess@canterbury.ac.nz