Engineering student projects: industry partner information

We invite you to submit a design or research and development project for our final-year engineering students.

All information relevant to submitting a project is below.

Project dates

Projects run from March until October.

If you would like to submit a project, please do so before the end of January. Whilst we can accept projects at any time up to mid-February, most students will make arrangements for their projects towards the end of the previous year.

Once you have submitted a project, we will contact you to discuss.

Costs

The projects are run for free, except where significant material costs are involved. In this case we would ask for material costs to be reimbursed. You will not be committing to any costs by submitting a project proposal.

Your company will be expected to nominate a mentor/supervisor to help guide the student through the project. There is no set rule for supervision time, but a minimum of 1 hour per fortnight is recommended.

Companies can also sponsor students to undertake their project, if they wish. A limited number of these scholarships are available, which are contestable and designed to attract the top students. Scholarships (paid to the student) are normally set at $2000 per student.

Programme areas

Students in Electrical, Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic and Software Engineering, from both the 3-year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BET) and the 4-year Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) programs are available, depending on the nature and scope of work.

Project level

The project will typically be at a level that would suit a recently graduated employee. The student will be allocated an AUT supervisor who will guide the project from an academic viewpoint. The AUT supervisor will also have sole responsibility for student assessment.

Students are expected to spend approximately 300 hours working on the project.

Intellectual property/confidentiality

It is standard for students to sign company IP and confidentiality agreements, provided that these are not restrictive in terms of assessing the students’ work. The standard AUT Project Agreement covering these issues can be found here.

Disclaimer

These projects are necessarily driven from an educational perspective, as opposed to meeting commercial goals and/or deadlines. While AUT will provide professional supervision by skilled and experienced staff, and exercise due care and responsibility in this supervision, any deliverables from the project are offered without warranty or guarantee.

Furthermore, if you decide to submit a project, there is no guarantee that we will be able to find a suitable student/ academic supervisor who wishes take on the project.

Click here If you require any further details or contact Andrew Hilton ahilton@aut.ac.nz.