The Cooperative Engineering Center (CEC) is a senior-industrial design relationship developed by the Mechanical Engineering Department of Virginia Military Institute. The primary purpose of the CEC is to serve as a challenging capstone design course and provide senior students with added exposure to the discipline of engineering. Teams of three students, one designated as team leader, are formed to investigate and propose a solution to an engineering design problem submitted by a local industrial client. The teams work directly with the industrial clients' representative. After arriving at a solution and writing a formal report, the team makes an oral presentation before a faculty review panel. After the faculty advisor accepts the written report, the team visits the client and presents the solution to the client. The client representative completes a grade and comment form and returns it to the CEC Director for 50% of the team's final grade.

The CEC has a faculty member, appointed as the Director, who solicits engineering projects, teaches pertinent design topics, and meets weekly with all engineering design teams, along with an assigned faculty design team advisor. The Director also maintains a pool of faculty members who can develop and present short courses and seminars, and conduct research through the research laboratories at the school. The resources are available to the industrial clients involved in the CEC.

2016 Project Summaries

• Computational Modeling of a High Frequency Pulse Tube Cryocoole
• Design and Analysis of a Tracking Photovoltaic System
• Designing and Analyzing a Low Cost Prosthetic Limb
• Detecting Material Defects using a Scanning Laser Beam
• Devils Backbone Gantry Design and Analysis
• Heat Flux Estimation of the Mars Science Laboratory
• Integrated Microclimate Systems in Personal Body Armor
• Numerical and Experimental Analysis
• Operational Capabilities of the Ancient Roman Onager Device
• Phase Change Materials for Use in Building Envelopes
• Radiative Heating in Insulated Concrete Forms
• Test Bed for Complex Aerodynamic Systems