The Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department’s 2025-26 senior project program marked a milestone at Cal Poly, with its largest student cohort to date completing 23 industry-sponsored projects with 16 partner organizations.

The projects connected students with sponsors across the California Central Coast, Central Valley, Southern California and Bay Area, as well as partners in other states and outside the United States. Together, the work gave students practical experience solving real problems for companies and organizations while helping sponsors explore solutions they can use.

This year’s projects spanned manufacturing, food and beverage, health care, logistics, medtech, medical devices, defense, software development, and nonprofit and government organizations. Teams of manufacturing engineering and industrial engineering students worked closely with sponsors to address industry challenges and deliver practical results.

Guided by four Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering faculty advisers, students applied Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing philosophy by combining manufacturing and industrial engineering principles with modern tools and technologies. Many teams worked with organizations that prioritize technology, engineering and artificial intelligence, using applied engineering methods and iterative design to turn classroom theory into results for clients.

Students also traveled farther, worked more closely with sponsors and took on more complex project environments. Through that work, they strengthened technical skills and built professional skills in communication, teamwork and project execution.

The senior project program continues to bridge academia and industry, preparing graduates to contribute quickly to a wide range of engineering and technology-driven organizations. The department thanks its industry partners, faculty advisers and students for making the 2025-26 program its most ambitious program to date.