Sponsorship Details
What does it cost to sponsor a project?
Sponsorship fees are required to support fabrication, testing, and other key educational objectives of the program, such as component purchases, hiring of Teaching Assistants and support staff, summer re-contracting for the Program Director, prizes for the top 3 teams each semester, printing costs, student support during the winter break, participation at capstone conferences, student and Director travel to company sites, web designer for site updates, social events, and more. Because each Capstone Design Project is unique, sponsorship fees can vary from project to project. Fees are determined through collaboration with the sponsor to ensure sufficient funding for completion of the project and adequate program support.
What about Intellectual Property? Who owns the design?
Capstone sponsors have rights of first refusal to solely own the intellectual property arising out of the project. Intellectual property includes patentable and non-patentable inventions, designs, trademarks, works subject to copyright, trade secrets, and processes. These aspects are covered adequately in the Sponsorship Agreement signed by the company and the University.
What happens if the design doesn’t work?
The Capstone Design Program is educational in purpose and is designed to help students learn the practice of engineering. All project work is provided to the sponsor “as is” and is not guaranteed by the university. Sponsors are strongly encouraged to be full participants in the program to ensure the design solution will meet their needs and function as intended, which is the important reason to appoint a company Technical Director. Our students are creative, talented, and driven, and often come up with novel, practical design solutions that are of great benefit to the industrial sponsor. However, we cannot guarantee or warrantee any work done by our students, and suggest that a viable design solution for the given project not be critical to your enterprise.
What about Liability?
Liability, intellectual property, indemnification, non-disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, and related matters are all governed by a legal agreement that is executed before the project begins, the Sponsorship Agreement.
What do sponsors receive at the end of the project?
Sponsors receive a comprehensive design report generated by the project team. The report fully documents the design and includes engineering analysis as well as a detailed budget and a complete set of working drawings. Sponsors also receive all prototype hardware, software, and other materials generated as part of the project, along with the students’ design logbooks and ownership of any intellectual property developed during the course of the project.
My company is not in Rhode Island. Is that a problem?
We have had industrial sponsors from outside of Rhode Island, with many from Massachusetts and Connecticut and beyond. Design teams utilize modern communication tools such as Zoom for video conferencing, and can also travel to the sponsor’s facility during the semester if needed.