Senior Design Project Competition

Each year, the Penn Engineering Alumni Society sponsors a Senior Design Project Competition for undergraduate engineering seniors at Penn Engineering. This competition assembles together the winning senior design project teams from each of Penn’s engineering majors.

Each of these design teams presents their accomplishments to a panel of “real world” judges who collectively represent a diverse set of technology disciplines. Having already received departmental accolades for technical achievement, this Senior Design Project Competition now challenges each team to succinctly articulate their design project’s objective, strategy and results to a diverse audience. As such, of chief importance in this competition is the ability to clearly communicate complex subject matter to those who are not experts in that subject matter.

Competition Judging Criteria:

Each project/presentation is limited to 15 minutes including setup and questions and answers. Judging will be based on the prize descriptions below:

Project Criteria

Prior to their presentation, each student is required to submit by e-mail to Brad Richards a word document containing a project overview. The overview should be single-spaced, 12-point font, 250 words or less. Project title, department and author name(s) are to be clearly indicated at the top of the sheet. Project overviews will be used to inform the judges of the important aspects of the project by providing a brief background, a statement of the problem, methods used with results, and conclusions.

Technology & Innovation Prize

This award recognized the team whose project represents the highest and best use of technology and innovation to leverage engineering principles.

Social Impact Prize

This award recognizes the team whose project represents the greatest positive impact on society by creatively solving an issue in health, social impact, product commercialization or sustainability/energy or another socially impactful arena.

Leadership Prize

This award recognizes the team which most professionally and persuasively presents their group project to incorporate a full analysis of their project scope, advantages, challenges and addresses commercialization/future potential of the research.

Judges’ Choice Award

This award recognizes the group whose all-around presentation captures the best of the senior design program – from ideation, the scope of project, team problem-solving, from execution to presentation.

More Information

The 2023 Senior Design Competition was held on Friday, April 28 in Levine Hall. See information about past competitions, including the 2023 winners.

If you are interested in serving as a Senior Design Project Competition judge, please contact Brad Richards, Director of Alumni Relations.


Prizes and Distribution

1 – Technology & Innovation Prize
1 – Social Impact Prize
1 – Leadership Prize
1 – Judges’ Choice Award
Each prize has a $2,000 award sponsored by Kerry Wisnosky, GEN’88.

Dress code for contestants:
Professional attire recommended.


Questions?

Contact the Office of Development and Alumni Relations: 215-898-6564

Lyle Brunhofer, ENG’14, GEN’14
lylebrun@seas.upenn.edu
Senior Design Project Competition Chairman