ARTSSCI 4000 provides Ohio State Arts and Sciences (ASC) students the opportunity to partner with industry leaders to pilot new initiatives, improve existing products, and develop data-driven business strategies. The capstone project is multidisciplinary in nature, given the diversity of academic majors housed within the College. Students engage in a 3-month (1 semester) experiential course offered by ASC’s Center for Career and Professional Success (Career Success). The projects offered in the experiential course are industry-led.
Capstone Experience:
The capstone project integrates theory and practice so students can demonstrate the breadth and depth of their Arts and Sciences education. With more than 80 majors and 100 minors, the College of Arts and Sciences is the academic heart of the university. The Arts and Sciences provide extraordinary opportunities to collaborate across disciplines, blending creativity and analysis to truly be at the forefront of thought. The breadth and depth of knowledge in the college gives students and researchers the critical thinking and adaptability essential for a lifetime of success.
Project Proposal Submission:
After reading the project proposal criteria, process, and guidelines below, you may either submit a project proposal following the instructions in the email, or you may submit it electronically here. If you have questions about the process or desire support in framing a project to align with the required criteria and guidelines, please email Tricia Zelaya-Leon at zelaya-leon.1@osu.edu.
Criteria for Project Proposal
- The project criteria listed below are in place to ensure that the learning and outcomes from the project are beneficial to both the partner organization and to the ASC students.
- Project Scope: Our students are managing this project alongside their full course load, so partners should anticipate that each student can dedicate, on average, one to two hours per week to the project. The Capstone experience is not an internship. It focuses on students applying and executing a process, and the learning comes from that hands-on experience rather than from direct instruction.
- Project Focus: Capstone projects require teams to fully engage in a comprehensive project management and design thinking process to develop a solution that meets an industry, market, or social need. The project can focus on any of the basic elements of the project management model (scope, planning, execution, implementation, or assessment), or design thinking (empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, or testing) with most projects including more than just one of the elements.
- Technology: Our students are expected to meaningfully ideate and incorporate technology into their solutions through learning, experimentation, developing and evaluating concepts, technologies, and/or tools.
- Innovation/Solution: The project is designed to allow students to participate in the design thinking process, which includes stages such as designing, prototyping, testing, and refining products, solutions, or applications. A key element of a successful project involves navigating uncertainty: students may face ambiguity around defining the problem, determining the right approach to solve it, or identifying what a successful outcome looks like.
- Need: The innovation or solution created by the students should address the needs of the relevant stakeholders. However, the project should not focus on an urgent business need, as the academic timeline typically moves more slowly than business requirements. Capstone projects provide an excellent opportunity for students to investigate a technical challenge or opportunity that aligns with your organization’s interests.
- Feasibility: Students will have one full academic semester to work on the project, but the project can extend over multiple years and iterations, with new student teams taking over each semester.
- Characteristics of Successful Capstone Projects:
- Present a challenge that encourages students to enhance their technical abilities.
- Emphasize execution, driving students toward achieving a tangible outcome.
- Require teamwork, fostering collaboration to meet project goals.
- Include a project management aspect, helping students define a vision of success, scope the problem, and produce measurable interim deliverables.
- Address stakeholder management, enabling students to develop skills in influencing and engaging others.
- Involve the communication of technical information to both expert and non-expert audiences.
Project Partner Expectations:
- Industry Advisor: Partner organizations must assign an advisor or liaison to each project. In most cases, each student team will also designate a contact person to facilitate communication throughout the project. Advisors and mentors play a vital role in providing technical expertise and domain knowledge, and they also support students in expanding their technical skills and accessing the necessary resources to complete the project.
- Resource Allocation: Organizations will need to allocate time and resources to support the student teams, with the specific amounts varying based on the project’s requirements, the organization’s needs, and the students involved. For industry-led capstone projects, sponsors are expected to provide all the resources necessary for the students to complete the project. At the start of the project, commitments specific to the partner will be determined and agreed upon by the students, staff, and partner advisors.
- Advisor Support: At the very least, industry advisors offer students a practical challenge that allows them to apply classroom knowledge in areas such as communication, technology, leadership, equity and inclusion, career and self-development, and critical thinking, professionalism, and teamwork. For projects to succeed, it’s beneficial for the industry advisor to be available for one hour on a weekly or biweekly basis, as needed.
- Confidentiality & IP: At the organization's request, students may sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). However, we ask for a reasonable level of transparency in certain aspects of the project to facilitate cross-learning, as students will write about and present their capstone projects. Ownership of Intellectual Property (IP) will be determined by the organization's requirements and the specific nature of the project.
Career Success and Student Requirements:
- Student Teams: Each student on the team is expected to spend approximately 1-2 hours per week on the project.
- Program Staff Support: Career Success instructors are available to support student teams in class and outside of class.
- Team Size: Team size can range from 3-5 students per team with an average of 4 students, chosen from the major demographics of the students enrolled in the course. For a complete listing of ASC majors and departments, click here.
NACE Competencies: Students enrolled in this capstone course do so voluntarily, meaning their enrollment is not required, but they receive elective credits that may count toward graduation, depending on their major. As such, it is vital that students develop skills in the following competencies as a result of their engagement with the course and the capstone project: communication, technology, leadership, equity and inclusion, career and self-development, critical thinking, professionalism, and teamwork
Why Should You Participate?
- Meet and form relationships with OSU ASC’s unique talent.
- Obtain new customer, design, and product insights as a diverse group of students from various majors collaborates on a topic relevant to your organization.
- An interdisciplinary team provides an opportunity to recruit students from multiple disciplines. Working with students during the capstone project allows organizations to cultivate a strong cohort of potential applicants for full-time hire.
- Our comprehensive capstone approach supports students in enhancing their learning, project management, and communication skills throughout the process.
- The fall capstone course begins in August, an opportune time to recruit from top talent.
- Receive widespread organization recognition and visibility within OSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and elsewhere through marketing materials and the Career Success website.
- Connect with Career Success staff and other partners on topics of interest to your organization.