News
Project: Capstone Team Formation and Project Assignment Tool
Work description:
This project will develop an AI-powered software tool to automate and optimize the student-to-project assignment process. The intern will build ML/NLP-powered tools to extract student competencies from unstructured data, map them to project requirements, and automatically generate optimized student-project matches based on interests and experience — all supported by the Design Lab team.
Brent Brunell, '94, the Technology Director of Digital & Electrical Systems at GE Vernova Advanced Research, will visit campus as a featured guest speaker for the Design Lab Showcase on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. The showcase runs from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, with Brent’s keynote presentation beginning at 3:00 PM in DCC 324.
The Design Showcase will be held on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the DCC Great Hall. Students from multiple engineering disciplines (Computer & Systems, Electrical, Industrial & Management, Materials and Mechanical Engineering) solve real-world design challenges for industry, entrepreneurs and academic/medical partners. Visit the showcase to:
We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Professor Sandipan Mishra as the new Director of the O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory (The Design Lab), effective March 1, 2026. A distinguished faculty member in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Professor Mishra steps into this leadership role at a pivotal moment for engineering design at RPI.
Do you have a ‘Why Not Change the World’ idea but no way to move forward? Consider engaging a multidisciplinary Capstone student design team to assist. Deadline for submissions for the Fall 2026 semester is July 15th, 2026!
A team from Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore, led by Deputy Principal Mr. Aw Tuan Kee, along with members Teow Yiwei and Leong Meng Fatt, visited The Design Lab in March. Our visitors met with the RPI team to share information about our two programs. The Temasek team learned about the Design Lab’s approach to guiding students in multidisciplinary, real-world engineering projects and The Design Lab team learned about the variety of excellent programs and industrial interactions offered at Temasek.
Congratulations to Sydney Neuman, the recipient of the inaugural David J. Duquette Capstone Prize. Sydney graduated in May with a B.S. in Materials Engineering. The award was presented to Sydney at the annual Materials Science and Engineering Dept Awards dinner on May 19. This award recognizes the outstanding performance and contributions of a Materials Engineering student on their Capstone project in the Multidisciplinary Capstone Design course.
A multidisciplinary team of Capstone Design students have successfully developed a Portable Electromagnetic Field Detection System. Their Spring’23 Capstone project, performed in collaboration with Prof. Sairam Geethanath (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) and Professor Sandipan Mishra (a Mechanical Engineering Professor at RPI) supported their efforts towards providing quality health care by enabling deployment of MRI scanners in resource-constrained communities.
Students from The Design Lab at Rensselaer participated in the March 28, 2023 grand opening event. The center is supported by CESMII, the Smart Manufacturing Institute, whose mission, according to their website, is "to enhance U.S. manufacturing productivity, global competitiveness, and reinvestment by increasing energy productivity, improving economic performance and raising workforce capacity."
The Design Lab recently published our 2022 Newsletter. The newsletter contains highlights of several Capstone projects and new robotic cell capabilities, as well as accomplishments of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. This is the link to the newsletter:
