Innovation Center
Academics
From your first year through your senior year, the Innovation Center lays the foundation to set you up for success and launch your career.
During your first-year, you'll learn about the product realization process, entrepreneurial thinking, business acumen and customer awareness.
Your journey culminates in a senior year capstone design course where your student team will solve a real-world challenge for a client, helping to answer today's complex questions. Apply your engineering knowledge, skillset and creative thinking resulting in the best resume builder and topic of conversation in any job interview.
The Innovation Center is your home for...
EGR 103 Introduction to Innovation and Design — emphasizes social responsibility, environmental issues and product-realization. Students work in small teams using the Engineering Design Process to develop solutions and create a final prototype that helps to solve a challenge in our local community.
MEE 431L/ECE 431L Multidisciplinary Design Lab I— required for electrical, computer and mechanical engineering majors. One-credit hour that emphasizes conceptual design and requires extensive research, brainstorming, ideation, decision analysis, and a final embodiment design. By developing conceptual design, student teams are better prepared for MEE 432L/ECE 432L, which involves design, build, test and a business plan.
MEE/ECE 432 Multidisciplinary Design I— Dive deeper into the product realization process and focus on conceptual design, embodiment design, final design and prototyping. Learn the analysis of the design criteria for safety, ergonomics, environment, cost and sociological impact.
ECT/IET/MCT 490 - Senior Project - Advanced study and research of the product realization process focusing on conceptual design, embodiment design, final design, and prototyping or other design verification. Students work on externally sponsored engineering projects in multidisciplinary teams that perform engineering analysis that may include safety, ergonomics, environmental, cost and sociological impact of their designs.
IET 323 Project Management — required for all disciplines within Engineering Technology. Defines critical characteristics of effective project management: meeting effectiveness, project proposal development, project planning, work breakdown structure, decision-making techniques, styles of management, communications, teaming skills, strategies and valuable oral and written presentation skills.
The Innovation Center is home to the senior design capstone courses for all majors except for civil engineering, which is ran by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.
In the senior design capstone, teams of students from multiple majors work together to solve a client issue. Clients can be community partners, industry businesses and even individuals.
During your senior year, you'll work with your team and client to brainstorm, test, refine and construct your solution.
Capstone projects are presented at a culminating presentation day.
Dayton is the nucleus of innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. This minor will provide students an opportunity to cultivate and develop their entrepreneurial mindset through transfer of knowledge, experiential learning and practice. The minor leads the students through all the stages of new venture creation, intellectual property, patent, researching funding solutions and more.
View Catalog for Minor in Technical Entrepreneurship (TEN)
The Stitt Scholars Program provides students with experiential learning opportunities (paid internships) through deep collaboration with clients from the Dayton community.
The Stitt Scholars Program was started with a generous donation from Jim '71 (Chairman of Cutco Corporation and Chairman of Olean Business Development Corporation) and Carol Stitt for engineering, business, and other students to collaborate with startup companies and entrepreneurs at The HUB powered by PNC Bank.
Stitt Scholars Program helps engineering student translate language of business (UD News)

A team of UD engineering seniors took home second place at the inaugural Quality of Life Plus National Design Competition. The UD team designed a lower-limb socket for a prosthetic that mitigates heat and moisture and improves the quality of life for injured veterans and first responders.

University of Dayton engineering students worked on a project for Stingley Elementary School to reduce cafeteria noise, offering hands-on learning and sparking excitement about college and engineering among fourth graders.
This project was a fun way to give back and inspire the next generation.
Student project team of Adam Dulay, electrical and computer engineering; Alison Hardie, electrical engineering; and William Maurer, mechanical engineering, commenting on their project with fourth graders at a local elementary school