Overview

GCU provides many ways for industry to connect with our faculty and students.   We maintain an “industry friendly” approach to collaborations as evidenced by an enlightened Intellectual Property Policy and reasonable, negotiated Indirect rates.  

Capstones

GCU’s Industry Capstone Project Initiative provides a mechanism to connect faculty and students with industry partners as sponsors for student capstone teams and expands on existing programs in the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology.

Developing a Capstone Partnership 

Interested companies work with faculty leads to define suitable capstone projects based on real-world design problems.  Projects are developed and managed together by the company mentors, faculty, and teams of 4-6 students over two semesters.  Each capstone project should contain two essentials:

•  Analysis on a technical or design problem

•  Solutions and/or design recommendations

Companies submit a project idea using the Capstone Project Proposal Form and work with college instructors and students to finalize a project scope and deliverables.  Once the project scope is finalized, the Sponsored Work Agreement is signed. Sponsorship fees are related to the costs associated with the project and sponsor expectations.

Benefits to Your Company

Collaborating with the college on capstone projects allows access to people and technology (e.g., students, faculty, researchers, and labs) for pursuing various kinds of innovation.  It benefits your company by providing:

•  Opportunities to initiate discretionary research projects

•  Valuable collaborations with GCU faculty

•  Access to the creative talent of students

•  Creation of innovative and novel solutions

•  Refinement of manufacturing or business processes

•  Ownership of intellectual property

•  Recruitment of highly-trained and motivated GCU graduates

Sponsored Research

Project Proposal Form 

This proposal form can be used by industry or external collaborators to propose a project involving students at GCU – for example, a capstone, senior research, or a team project. This is intended to be a brief summary outlining the objectives of the project, the known requirements, accessible resources and timing. This is not a full Project Charter or Statement of Work. The completed form is to be sent to [email protected].  If the project can be integrated into one of the educational or research programs at GCU, we will work with the proposer to refine the expectations for approval of the project. If the proposer is intending to sponsor the project, a Sponsored Research Agreement will be executed that assigns IP, addresses confidentiality,  and contains a clear Statement of Work.