Partner with Us

Whether you're a member of our alumni, a member of the business community or just interested in giving back, there are many ways to partner with the CU Boulder's Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. 

Volunteer Opportunities

Alumni and industry volunteers provide valuable insight and mentoring for current mechanical engineering students. Please reach out to katherine.mcconnell@colorado.edu for more information about the opportunities below.

  • Guest lectures about your career path or a relevant technical topic
  • Panels to share job search and/or career insights with current students
  • Industry tours to introduce students to your field of work
  • Mock interviews to help students practice for upcoming job interviews
  • Informational interviews to allow students to ask questions about your work and advice for them as new engineers

Sponsor a Senior Design Project

Design Center Colorado (DCC) fosters innovative, technical collaborations with business, industry, and government agencies. One DCC initiative involves bringing projects to undergraduate and graduate students in mechanical engineering where integrated teams of 4 to 6 undergraduate students (3 to 4 graduate students), a faculty advisor, and an industry mentor develop workable solutions. Student teams work on assigned projects for two consecutive semesters and deliver tested, functional hardware and documentation to the industry sponsor at the completion of the project.

Benefits of sponsoring a project:

  • Sponsors obtain functional hardware with documentation at the end of the project.
  • Sponsors benefit from new ideas and approaches undertaken by student teams of either graduate or undergraduate students.
  • Close interaction with student teams provides sponsors with a unique opportunity for recruiting new graduates.
  • Integrated teams comprised of faculty members, industry sponsors and students focus on the successful completion of the project.
  • Sponsored projects are showcased to the local community as well as other companies at a public design exposition each spring.

How Senior Design Sponsorship Works 

Collaborate with Faculty for Sponsored Research

Faculty members at CU Boulder are eager to collaborate and have varying capabilities and areas of expertise in the following research areas. Be sure to check out our Research Overview Slides for a quick look at faculty members and their unique capabilities and areas of expertise. 

  Research Overview Slides 

You may also be interested in learning more about research by focus area as follows:

Join ME Partners

ME Partners support the education of students and the mission of the department by bringing industry connections and enabling project-based learning. 

ME Partners collaborate by:

  • Sponsoring senior design and graduate design course projects
  • Providing resources to maintain and enhance project-based courses
  • Delivering seminars to graduate and undergraduate students
  • Serving as guest lecturers for academic courses
  • Supporting plant/lab site visits for students
  • Connecting students with internship opportunities
  • Serving as adjunct faculty members, as needed

Benefits of becoming an ME Partner include:

  • Networking with colleagues
  • Student recruitment opportunities for jobs/internships
  • Opportunities to shape education for up-and-coming engineers
  • Solutions to engineering problems through senior design projects
  • New ideas and approaches to company problems
  • Functioning hardware with documentation
  • Outreach and promotion of your involvement

Learn more about ME Partners 

Connect with Industry & Foundations Relations

Industry & Foundation Relations at CU Boulder connects local, national and international companies to the people, services, projects and resources they need to support business growth and development.

To learn more about partnering with the department, please email katherine.mcconnell@colorado.edu.