Opportunities From: Volunteer with Mines

Mines Capstone Design is seeking judges to review 10 student submitted Broader Impacts Essays. 

Every semester, Capstone Design students are assigned to write an individual essay about how their area of engineering impacts the social, environmental, and/or economic lives of communities and individuals. The top 10 essays from this group of approximately 550 senior engineering students were chosen by faculty and now need final assessment. The top three essays will be determined by Mines alumni and external partners, and the authors will be recognized at the Capstone Awards Breakfast.

The prompt for this semester’s essays is: Designed systems are not neutral; they actively shape the behaviors of people, the health of the environment, and the flow of economies. Develop a position that argues how an engineered system specifically related to your Capstone project has positively or negatively impacted the behavior of society, the environment, and/or the economy.

Sign up to be an essay reviewer by selecting the "Respond" button at the top right corner of this page. Someone will then be in touch to provide you with the essays and instructions on how to submit your assessments. Essays will be distributed to volunteers starting Friday, April 3rd. All essay reviews need to be submitted by Wednesday, April 29th (prior to our Showcase event on Thursday, April 30th).    

Our Program: 

The Capstone Design program provides an opportunity for Mines students to work with industry and community partners to solve engineering problems with creativity and ingenuity through a thoughtful and multidisciplinary design process over the course of a year-long project.

The Capstone Design program includes over 600 students from Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Construction, Environmental, and Design Engineering who are supported by over 30 faculty serving as Project Advisors.  Our projects run two-semesters, with a new set of projects starting each August and January.   

Projects range from aerospace and product design projects for industry and entrepreneurial partners, to environmental and civil projects impacting our region, to humanitarian and assistive devices impacting individuals and communities.  We support nearly 100 projects each year from our industry and community partners.

To be a Judge: 

Sign up to be a Capstone judge at our Project Showcase by selecting the "Respond" button on the top right corner of this page.

As a Judge at Showcase you will chat with student teams to get an understanding of their project and help students strengthen their communication and presentation skills. You will utilize our online judging platform to judge teams on criteria such as Design Approach & Solution, clarity of next steps, and overall project communication. 

A cell phone or tablet that can receive email is required for this volunteer opportunity (no app downloads necessary).

Showcase takes place on campus on Thursday, April 30th. We will start the day with an orientation and welcome breakfast at 7am.

We look forward to seeing you on campus!