Capstone Project Wiki

In the Capstone program, students are given more access to University resources than normal. In order for the Capstone program to continue using these extra resources, students must follow the polices that govern their use. Thus, failure to follow Capstone and University policies will negatively impact both your individual and team grades.

* All Capstone participants must abide by all health and safety regulations required by Capstone, Departments, the College, and the University.

• All Capstone students must complete the required Safety Training for their workspace.
• Safety glasses must be worn at all appropriate times, including:
  • At all times when you are in the PRL or Motor Sports Lab, unless there is a special event that preempts regular work, such as a design fair.
  • In any other facility that is posted as requiring safety glasses.
  • When using tools or working near others using tools.
  • When working near potentially hazardous machinery.
• When using machinery, two people must always be present.
• Never use machinery or equipment on which you have not been properly trained.
• Report any injury that occurs while working on your project to the Capstone office as soon as possible.
• Capstone projects sometimes require tests that are outside the normal processes of what our campus labs are set up to safely provide, and that contain inherent risk. In this situation, the University requires that a safety plan be created. Work with the Capstone office to do so. Safety plans require approval from several campus officials, often taking several weeks to finalize, so please plan accordingly.
• Safety Plans are a resource that can help.

All students and coaches have signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). This agreement allows project sponsors to share sensitive information, allowing you to complete your projects. Always respect this agreement by not sharing confidential information with anyone outside of Capstone. Unless specifically authorized by the sponsor, you must not post any information (including the name of the sponsor and/or the project name) for any Capstone project on social media or any public platform. You must not represent yourself as an employee of your sponsor.

You should discuss with your sponsor what information they will allow you to share with others, such as vendors or outside consultants. Always protect the sensitive information your sponsor has shared with you! For more information, see the NDA form in your Box folder under Class Documents/Forms.

To protect the sponsor's confidential information, you must use secure tools for sharing data with your teammates and your sponsor. Capstone has provided you a secure Box account to hold your project data. See Project Data Archive for information on the Box folder structure you should use for your work. Please save all your work in the Box folders.

If you would like to give your sponsor access to your Box drive, please follow the process described in Project Data Archive.

You must not use non-secure tools such as Google Docs to produce work for your sponsor nor to store sensitive information. The secure storage in Box will allow you to protect the sponsor's interests as you share information with your team. Avoid sharing documents with email links where no authentication is required to access the document. Such links create a data vulnerability.

You may create a Google Calendar for your project, as long as the calendar contains no sensitive information and does not provide any insecure links to your Box folder.

The purpose of financial procedures and policies is to manage the University purchasing requirements and make getting your project hardware and materials as quick and easy as possible. All Capstone purchases are subject to University purchasing policies, the purchasing policies below must be followed.

• To ensure understanding of the purchasing policies, each student must take the Purchasing Qualification Exam on Learning Suite and score at least 90% before they are eligible to make Capstone purchases. This ensures that each person understands the Capstone purchasing process and policies. Each member of every team needs to pass the Purchasing Qualification Exam early in the school year.
• Always follow Capstone-approved purchasing methods to buy supplies for your team.
• All purchases must be authorized by your coach.
• Purchases over $3,500 require a University Purchase Order and take extra lead time.
• Never spend Capstone team money on food purchases.
• Never spend beyond your approved budget.
• Never use your own money to make any purchases whether online, on BYU campus, or by telephone.
• Never use your own money to print items for your team.
• Never use your team CAEDM printing account to print personal items (including individual Capstone assignments).

See Purchasing and Travel for more information.

All Capstone travel is subject to University travel policies. The travel policies below must be followed. It will take some time to comply with University travel policies, so start planning your travel early.

• Project-related travel in the local area should be by BYU rental vehicle.
• Project-related travel of more than 300 miles round-trip and/or requiring an overnight stay requires a BYU Travel Authorization to be completed by the coach in coordination with the Capstone office before traveling, regardless of who is paying for the travel.
• Students traveling overnight or more than 300 miles round trip must travel with their coach or other BYU employee. Use of personal vehicles in this situation is not permitted, including for competition teams.
• All students must sign a travel release before participating in travel requiring University approval. Almost all students signed this form before registering for Capstone. If you did not, you will need to sign it before you travel.

See Travel for more information.