The Capstone Innovation Design Clinic (IDC) challenges UC Merced’s engineering students to become entrepreneurs of their knowledge, skills and research applications.
Partner organizations and/or corporations play a vital role by helping the student gain real-world experience and skills that will carry them into their future careers, while the partners also get solutions to their own engineering needs.
The IDC provides UC Merced's graduating seniors opportunities to learn and contribute on teams that include practicing engineers and other professionals from partner and sponsoring organizations.
The IDC teams focus on engineering design projects chosen based on their potential for significant near-term effects on communities, organizations and/or industries in the region. The program has also integrated students from the entrepreneurship course in the Ernest and Julio Gallo Management Program to infuse an economic development mindset in the context of global market potential. The commitment of the teams and partners, combined with the richness and intensity of the Innovate to Grow competition, greatly enhances the traditional capstone experience.
Through the IDC, classroom learning and students' research activity are coordinated with real-world design projects developed with partner organizations and industries to help share diverse approaches to designing and building solutions that fulfill client-based objectives. IDC partners contribute sponsorships of $25,000 per year to the program's operation, and each project sponsor’s involvement ranges from providing funds to engaging students in industry experiences.
We seek opportunities for engineering and management students with partner organizations and industries to collaborate, discover solutions to common problems, create and streamline networking, and increase both radical and incremental innovation.
As industries and organizations become increasingly knowledge-based, and as products, processes and business systems become more complex, UC Merced engineering students are becoming an essential part of the industry and are contributing to regional economic, social and cultural growth.
For current Teams & Student Projects.
