The Cook Engineering Design Center

Deliverables:
Some projects provide significant results in the form of working prototypes or processes. Others projects create results that have begun to address an industry problem but may require more work by another group of students or by engineering staff within the sponsor's company to complete the work.

Results vary depending on the nature of the project itself, the capabilities of the students, and the clarity of communications between the team and the technical liaison. While Thayer School cannot predict the quality of any particular project, it can guarantee that students will give their best efforts to their projects.

Deliverables may be one or more of the following:

Design analyses, reports, and feasibility studies
Prototype hardware, e.g., product prototypes
Engineering plans and drawings
Computer programs, manuals, and data
Manufacturing process plans
Demonstrations, videos, and presentations
Business plans and financial analyses

Benefits to Sponsors:
When a company sponsors an ENGS 89/90 project, they get a team of enthusiastic students who have studied engineering topics beyond the core courses and who are motivated to solve problems by applying engineering principles. Over the course of the two ten-week terms and a seven-week interim period, this Thayer School team typically spends between 800 and 1,600 hours on its project, depending on project complexity and team size. The team consists of 3-6 students, at least one faculty advisor, and the course director; the team also has access to other faculty, support staff, and the many resources of Thayer School.

Your proposed project may be an opportunity for you to add resources to an existing engineering problem, a way for you to explore the next step of a current company project, or a way to assign resources to a task that has been postponed for lack of staffing. Your company may also use the opportunity to identify talent for recruiting purposes or initiate longer-term research collaborations with Thayer School faculty.

Any company, large or small, is encouraged to submit a clearly defined workplace problem to the CEDC. At the beginning of the fall term, ENGS 89 students select the problems they would like to solve. The CEDC then assigns the students to teams and matches the teams with the company sponsors.

Once a problem is selected, the company that submitted it becomes a CEDC associate. A technical liaison from the company (who has practical experience in the relevant field of engineering) works directly with the students. The financial liaison works with the CEDC staff to support the team with financial support of the course.

The Cook Engineering Design Center was established in 1978 to create a bridge between industry and Thayer School. Several companies signed on to provide financial support and bring in projects for graduate engineering students, who would work in close collaboration with industry representatives.

Former overseer John Brown Cook '29 was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the concept of the Center. After Cook's death in 1979, his widow, Marian Miner Cook, succeeded him as overseer and made a generous financial gift to support the design center. The Center, originally called INVENTE, was renamed the Cook Engineering Design Center (CEDC).