Sponsors

We're preparing your future workforce.

Industry partners want to hire engineers who can collaborate across disciplines and work with external stakeholders to solve complex problems. IDProjects and IDCapstone prepare students to do just that.

Together, these two courses offer a progressive, mentored learning experience that teaches professional workplace skills, practices, and mindsets and builds a strong foundation for engineering success.

“The IDC course allowed me to put my problem-solving skills to work in ways that I do every day in my career. Problems often span areas of expertise and require you to work with experts of other fields to figure it out. The IDC course was challenging and allowed me to learn so much more about the problem-solving process.I was better prepared for my career for having taken this course.”—Jeremy Lederman '22

Why sponsor a project?

You create a workforce pipeline for easier hiring. When you sponsor a project for the IDProjects course, you get early access to students from engineering and other disciplines whom you can recruit for internships and co-ops. When you sponsor a project for IDCapstone, you're working with seniors that you can recruit for entry-level positions.
You help teach the skills you need. Industry sponsors mentor teams on professionalism and workplace practice, from budgeting and timeline management to interpreting customer expectations. When you hire them, they're ready.
You get fresh solutions. Interdisciplinary students tackle your project with the latest thinking, offering helpful deliverables that solve problems in unexpected ways.

The IDProjects to IDCapstone pathway

In this graphic, we highlight the potential pathways for students to benefit from the IDPro and the Capstone.

The College of Engineering's Interdisciplinary Education program offers a start-to-finish engineering design pathway that doubles as a talent recruitment pipeline. Here's how it could work for your company:

Sophomores and juniors: Work with middle-year students as you sponsor an Interdisicplinary Projects team.
Summer internships: Offer internships to students from your Interdisciplinary Projects team.
Seniors: Sponsor an Interdisciplinary Capstone team to continue working on your project at a more advanced level with senior engineering students.
After graduation: Hire students you've gotten to know over multiple years.

Macey Gannaway in an orange safety vest at a construction site

IDProjects sponsorship package

Projects: Formative, mentored experiential learning
Students: Sophomores and juniors of all majors
Scope: Medium-stakes projects that last one or more semesters
Team size: 3-6 people
Learning goals: Individual and team development, including collaboration, communication, and project management
Prepares students for: Internships and the IDCapstone course
Sponsorship fee: $3,000
Example project: A team helped characterize and optimize an industrial bacon press for a food-processing equipment manufacturer. Watch the video.

Solomon Afework in a safety helmet working on a machine at Smurfit Westrock.

IDCapstone sponsorship package

Projects: Summative, mentored engineering design projects
Students: Seniors from select College of Engineering majors
Scope: Challenging, high-stakes projects that last two semesters
Team size: 3-15 people
Learning goals: High-level technical and soft skills, including the development of functional, on-time, on-budget deliverables
Prepares students for: Workplace success
Sponsorship fee: $10,000
Example project: A team designed and prototyped an enhanced skeleton sled to enable injured military veterans to compete in Para Skeleton competitions. Watch the video.

How do you sponsor a project?

New projects are always welcome for IDProjects and IDCapstone. Contact Robin Ott, interdisciplinary program administrator, to discuss ideas.

What's the time commitment?

Sponsors agree to assign an engineering liaison to the team to spend 1-2 hours per week answering questions, offering guidance, and mentoring students remotely.

We encourage site visits to sponsor facilities and welcome sponsors to campus for presentations and major milestone events, like ID Expo.

What happens to intellectual property?

For sponsored IDCapstone projects, Virginia Tech waives its rights to IP, data, and products generated as a result of the work performed by students.

IDCapstone students waive their rights to financially benefit from IP, data, and products but retain the right for their names to be on any patents developed from their design work.