Senior Design Project, MME 448/449, is a two-course sequence taken by MME seniors. The sequence allows students to research problems and apply their knowledge gained in their earlier years at Miami in such areas as engineering, science, humanities, and social sciences to solve these problems. The engineering design method is used to solve these problems. This method includes: recognizing a need, defining the problem, synthesis, analysis, evaluation, presentation, and implementation.

In the first course, MME 448, the students are presented with projects given by regional companies or other sources, such as the department faculty. They form small groups (typically 4 or 5 students), choose one project and spend the whole semester conducting literature and marketing research. The major part of this research is to identify constraints, such as customer needs, economical, societal, ethical and environmental; define the problem, and brainstorm and develop ideas.

These ideas are evaluated according to criteria the team develops. The best three are selected as proposals for the customer. At the end of this course, the students prepare a report to the customer that includes information about their research and details of their proposals.

In the second course, MME 449, the students meet with the customer and faculty advisors to evaluate their three proposals and select one to implement. Because engineering design is an iterative process, students find that some of their original ideas need to be reevaluated or re-worked. The students' final design solution is presented as a physical model (in the company or lab), computer simulation, or a combination of both.

Here is a list of the 2019-2020 projects recognized with awards:

• Best Overall Project Award: ARIEL1 (Ryan Demaree, Ronan, Driscoll, Scotty Fraser, Mason McCabe, Inés Muñoz de Cote Solano-López). Advisor--Fazeel Khan
  Goal: Design of a natural gas leak management system for Ariel Pumping Systems
• Innovation Award: KAIVAC (Justin Carter, Ruchira Gupta, Maggie Jones, Zach Kelley, Jake Lindley). Advisor--John Richter
  Goal: Design implementation of a low noise vacuum motor for the Kaivac OmniFlex Cleaning System
• Manufacturing Award: TEXTRON (Johannes Aquino, Meredith Engel, Mitchell Georgia-Hoard, Noah Simon, Sean Steckle). Advisor--Muhammed Jahan
  Goal: Design of improved safety systems for Textron manufacturing equipment
• Humanitarian Award: BP (Nick Kavouris, Bangchi Mao, Logan Ranly, Brent Reichert). Advisor--Jeong-Hoi Koo
  Goal: Design of a blood flow simulator for testing blood pressure parameter variations