Capstone
Capstone
Capstone
Overview
The capstone marks the transition from guided development to full student ownership. Students define, design, and implement an autonomous system of their choosing using the autonomy stack, simulation tools, and flight workflows developed throughout the curriculum.
Rather than following prescribed steps, students make architectural and design decisions based on system behavior, test results, and real-world constraints. All projects follow shared safety, validation, and testing expectations, emphasizing disciplined engineering practices over novelty.
The capstone reflects how autonomous systems are developed in practice: iteratively, with careful validation, and with an emphasis on reliability, observability, and safe deployment.
Overview
The capstone marks the transition from guided development to full student ownership. Students define, design, and implement an autonomous system of their choosing using the autonomy stack, simulation tools, and flight workflows developed throughout the curriculum.
Rather than following prescribed steps, students make architectural and design decisions based on system behavior, test results, and real-world constraints. All projects follow shared safety, validation, and testing expectations, emphasizing disciplined engineering practices over novelty.
The capstone reflects how autonomous systems are developed in practice: iteratively, with careful validation, and with an emphasis on reliability, observability, and safe deployment.
Overview
The capstone marks the transition from guided development to full student ownership. Students define, design, and implement an autonomous system of their choosing using the autonomy stack, simulation tools, and flight workflows developed throughout the curriculum.
Rather than following prescribed steps, students make architectural and design decisions based on system behavior, test results, and real-world constraints. All projects follow shared safety, validation, and testing expectations, emphasizing disciplined engineering practices over novelty.
The capstone reflects how autonomous systems are developed in practice: iteratively, with careful validation, and with an emphasis on reliability, observability, and safe deployment.
Outcomes
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Design and deploy a complete autonomous system integrating perception, estimation, and control
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Demonstrate safe, repeatable autonomous behavior in simulation and supervised flight
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Apply system-level reasoning to balance safety, performance, and robustness
-
Diagnose, refine, and iterate on autonomous behavior using real system data
-
Communicate technical decisions, tradeoffs, and results clearly and professionally
-
Demonstrate engineering ownership by planning, executing, and validating an autonomous system from concept through deployment
Outcomes
-
Design and deploy a complete autonomous system integrating perception, estimation, and control
-
Demonstrate safe, repeatable autonomous behavior in simulation and supervised flight
-
Apply system-level reasoning to balance safety, performance, and robustness
-
Diagnose, refine, and iterate on autonomous behavior using real system data
-
Communicate technical decisions, tradeoffs, and results clearly and professionally
-
Demonstrate engineering ownership by planning, executing, and validating an autonomous system from concept through deployment
Outcomes
-
Design and deploy a complete autonomous system integrating perception, estimation, and control
-
Demonstrate safe, repeatable autonomous behavior in simulation and supervised flight
-
Apply system-level reasoning to balance safety, performance, and robustness
-
Diagnose, refine, and iterate on autonomous behavior using real system data
-
Communicate technical decisions, tradeoffs, and results clearly and professionally
-
Demonstrate engineering ownership by planning, executing, and validating an autonomous system from concept through deployment