Student Engagement

Industry engagement is vital to enhance student learning and successfully prepare students for their professional careers. This type of collaboration allows students to learn about potential career paths, strengthen their transferrable skills and gain practical experience by applying theories learned in the classroom to real-world applications.

In turn, industry partners build stronger name recognition among students, improve recruiting results and gain fresh perspectives and ideas from innovative students.

Mentoring Programs

Through various school and industry-led mentoring programs, students have a rich opportunity to engage with alumni and practicing professionals in industry to further develop their professional skills, network and increase their awareness about opportunities. Students are also guided on best practices for resume writing, interviewing and other topics to help prepare for the recruiting process.

Student Organizations

Gain access to a diverse pool of highly motivated student leaders by engaging with one of our 30+ engineering-focused student organizations. Collaborate on a service project, sponsor an event, host a professional development workshop, send a speaker to a meeting or organize an industry tour. These are just a few of the many ways you can partner with our student groups.

Project-Based Learning

Senior projects, or capstone courses, focus on the application of science, mathematics, engineering and design skills taught in earlier courses. These culminating classes give students a rigorously challenging, real-world, immersive engineering experience. Industry sponsors propose a project idea and provide a technical mentor to work with student teams of 3-4 throughout the semester. Organizations benefit by gaining a fresh look at an organizational challenge and an opportunity to evaluate student talent for recruitment. Opportunities to engage with students on projects exist both in the classroom and through student groups.

The McKelvey Student Project Guidelines outline the expectations for industry-based student projects. If the project involves potential intellectual property or the disclosure of confidential information, a Student CDA/IP Agreement needs to be reviewed and signed by the student(s), course instructor, and company representative.  The completed form and any questions should be directed to the Director of Industry Relations prior to beginning the project.

Competitions & Hackathons

Deloitte's Capture the Flag Competition and the Boeing Innovation Challenge are just two examples of how our industry partners have implemented creative programs to engage with students and identify top talent. Whether it's an annual competition or a one-time event to tackle an industry challenge, students value collaborative, hands-on experience.