Capstone

Capstone is where our 4th year students get to shine and design their own creations.
A human hand and robotic hand with fingers touching

Capstone is where students use what they have learned in ECE to build real-world electronic prototypes. Students have built everything from digital graffiti boards to neural brain interfaces to self-playing xylophones. In a single semester, you will work with a group to go from idea to prototype and show off your team's work to alumni, current students, and faculty at the annual Capstone Fair.

What our students say about capstone

Zachary Yahn

Capstone is where the ECE curriculum comes together. I loved the flexibility to pursue any project that interested my team, and applying the various skills I learned from my ECE classes over the years easily made it one of the most fun classes I took at UVA. No other class I took could match it in hands-on work and real problem solving. It's certainly difficult but well worth every minute.

Sharon Lu

For our capstone project, my group made a pickleball training machine that had preprogrammed training routines and shot balls with different speeds, spins, and angles. I loved how this class was very open ended, allowing us to be really creative and integrate such a large mechanical component as well. We had a ton of fun demoing our project, launching balls around 30mph into a padded wall in the lab!

Images from our Fall 2023 Capstone Fair

Students and visitors standing around a blocked-off demo space
A student smiling at the camera while team members work on a project
Two students talking by a table with a plant and "plant whisperers" group name sign
Students standing around a table with an electronic xylophone
Student waving a hand over a light display panel
Students gathered around a table with a "E-thello board" poster
Faculty talking with students around a capstone demonstration
A student reaching a hand with an electronic glove out to a child
Two students by a table with a computer, one wearing a custom sensor as a headset

Past capstone winners

Fall 2023 winners: Simophone

An electronic xylophone that plays Simon Says. 

Fall 2023 Capstone Winners

More details about the capstone course

Capstone satisfies the ABET mandated Major Design Experience for Electrical and Computer Engineering students. It is one semester in duration and requires student teams to take a project from concept to "alpha-stage" prototype which is a very realistic industrial design cycle for the types of products that fall within the scope of this course. The final presentation and demo during a Capstone Fair at the end of the semester is well-attended by alumni, current students, and faculty. 

Capstone addresses the following "big picture" goals through a number of specific learning objectives. At the conclusion of this course students should be able to:

  • take a broadly-defined project, self selected and design, build, and test a solution that meets performance objectives.
  • work effectively in teams and learn project organization.
  • develop test plans and develop techniques for effective debugging.
  • experience the joys and frustrations of developing a project.
  • give effective presentations.
  • write an engineering report that details their design solution, testing results, assembly techniques, constraints, engineering standards, and societal implications of their work.

Assessments will be based on class presentations, working project demonstrations, proposal and final report, and participation in concept inventory testing.

Questions about our capstone?

Adam Barnes

Senior Lecturer, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Adam Barnes earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1992, and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1995. In 2019 he moved to the University of Virginia to teach the next generation of engineers. He is an ASEE member and interested in advancing engineering and science in both rising engineers and the general public.
ResearchGate
Email ab6uy@virginia.edu

Keith Williams

Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Clark Scholars Faculty Director

Williams' completed my Ph.D. in materials physics at Penn State University in 2001, and undertook postdoctoral research in the Molecular Biophysics Group at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, thereafter establishing a nanophysics laboratory in the physics department at the University of Virginia. 
Google Scholar Research Summary
Email kwilliams@virginia.edu