Senior Capstone Projects
The senior capstone project is one of the most intensive, memorable, and eye-opening experiences in the undergraduate program.
CubeSat, Applewhite, Boeing and RAVEN awarded! See details below.
BSAAE students complete a rigorous design and build project focusing specifically on the skills and knowledge unique to the field of aerospace engineering. All projects provide students with focused industry mentoring, interdisciplinary teamwork, written and oral communication skills, engagement with regulatory requirements, fiscal and procurement management, social and ethical considerations, and market awareness.
Capstone Options
For A&A students, three options are available for capstone design:
- Large team in aeronautics, sponsored by the A&A Department, that creates a new scale-model fixed wing aircraft each year based on a current design topic of direct relevance to industry or military needs.
- Large team in astronautics, sponsored by the A&A Department, that focuses on development and testing of a launch system and payload such as a cubesat.
- Small team projects allowing students to directly engage with industry on current and emergent engineering challenges, which may be industry-sponsored through the College of Engineering, faculty-sponsored, or self-organized (see your adviser if you would like to submit an application to create a Capstone Project).
The large team projects must accommodate both domestic and international students, so the selected topics must not involve any constraints related to export controlled material. Requirements for US citizenship and/or NDA constraints are possible for the small team projects.
When selecting a Capstone Project, students should weigh their research and subject interests, relevant skills to contribute, career goals and more.
Industry Sponsored Capstone Program
The UW College of Engineering (COE) Industry Sponsored Capstone Program is a college-wide effort that is designed to provide effective project-based and team-based education of undergraduate students to meet the needs of engineering, science and industry.
To learn about sponsoring an Aeronautics & Astronautics Capstone project, visit the COE Industry Capstone Program.
2019-2020 A&A Senior Capstone Projects
Industry-sponsored projects
Airbus: Urban mobility battery swap
Applewhite Aero: Baton, a precision delivery system
Boeing: Regional aircraft family
TLG Aerospace: Robust laminar flow over a high endurance airfoil
Vulcan: Wildlife conservation drone
Faculty and student-led projects
UW A&A Aircraft Design: The NASA / Lockheed Martin X59 quiet supersonic flight demonstrator.
Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion: Liquid bipropellant rocket.
CubeSat: Flight hardware that will fly in space.
RAVEN: Rocket analog vehicle for experiments in guidance, navigation, and control.
Capstone technical awards 2020
INNOVATION: Excellence in technology innovation
Honors the team whose final product represented the highest achievement in innovating the technology used in solving aerospace engineering problems.
Winner: CubeSat
IMPACT: Greatest potential impact on the field of aerospace, including social good
Honors the team whose final product represented the greatest potential, positive impact on the aerospace industry and aerospace engineering's role in shaping society.
WINNER: Applewhite
TRAILBLAZERS: Excellence in unique & creative problem solving
Honors the team whose final product demonstrated the most novel and creative team-based approach to identifying and addressing an aerospace engineering problem.
WINNER: Boeing
COMMUNICATION: Excellence in communication and presentation of ideas
Honors the team whose work demonstrated the highest achievement in articulating a need or problem; effectively proposing a solution; and maintaining a consistent, impactful message regarding the benefits of their product.
WINNER: RAVEN
A&A would like to thank all of our technical reviewers who dedicated so much time to select these winners and provide valuable feedback. External technical reviewers include: Paul Applewhite, Doug Chappelle, Gary Cohen, Evan Frank, Jeff Hogan, Robert Lind, Matt Orr, Joel Reiter, and Adam Tahir. Internal reviewers from A&A include Behcet Acikmese, Abhiram Aithal, Burak Boyacioglu, Dana Dabiri, Ed Habtour, Jim Hermanson, Erik Hurlen, Justin Little, Eli Livne, Mehran Mesbahi, Kristi Morgansen, Chet Nelson, Peter Scuito, Reza Soltani, Steven Stanley, and Eric Wang.
As we couldn't gather together for the usual Capstone Poster Sessions at the end of the year, A&A was thrilled to debut the Capstone Film Fest. Read the A&A Film Fest feature with awards announced or watch it on YouTube.
Completed Projects
2018-2019
Visit the College of Engineering website for summaries of the 2018-2019 industry capstone projects.
In addition, faculty and student-led projects included aircraft design, cubesats, origami structures, and space systems design.
2017-2018
Visit the College of Engineering website for summaries of the 2017-2018 industry capstone projects.