The project is designed to provide you with substantive creative-thinking, problem-solving and teamwork experiences, along with opportunities to develop advanced design skills. Another critical aspect of the project is the emphasis on effective communication—an essential skill in the workplace.

You will work closely with a faculty member on a topical problem of your own choosing. Many alumni tell us their project experience has translated to real advantages in the workplace.

Project topics vary widely, reflecting the enormous range of interests of our M.Eng. students and the expertise of our faculty. For example, among the projects of students graduating in 2008 were:

• Microcontroller Unit and Communication
• The Stable Region of Finite User Slotted ALOHA System
• Deep Brain Stimulation in Canines
• Deploying IPTV in Africa (Nigeria & South Africa)
• Tester Board for Asynchronous FPGAs and Processors: Power Supply
• Ionospheric Behavior during the November 2004 Magnetic Storm
• Designing and Testing Grating for Light Coupling into Integrated Waveguides

Among the special opportunities available to Cornell M.Eng. students are a project in renewable energy and control, a multidisciplinary project with opportunities to participate in the Cornell Solar Decathlon House Project.

Projects = Real World Value
M.Eng. projects generally prove their worth in the real world. For Mike Willhoff (M. Eng. 2004), that happened fairly soon. He says his work on the Cornell ICE Cube satellite "really gave me a leg up" on the job at Aerospace Corporation. At Cornell, he learned not just what goes into making a satellite but also why things are done to military standards. This year at Aerospace, he had an opportunity to serve as co-investigator on a research and development project, working with a small team to design, prototype, and build a power system for a small satellite. "Some of what I learned in my project at Cornell I applied to my project here at Aerospace, and it resulted in my giving a paper at a conference."