University of Connecticut Management for Engineering and Manufacturing (MEM) Senior Design Program
The UConn MEM major is an independent academic major that is part of both the College of Engineering and the School of Business. MEM students gain critical business and engineering skills, learn how to design solutions, and become effective team leaders. At graduation, they are part of an elite cohort with two tassels hanging from their cap, leaving with a B.S. degree conferred by both schools, total enterprise vision, and well-rounded knowledge of production in manufacturing and the service industries. Senior Design is a capstone course during which students work on teams with businesses, manufacturers, and other organizations to complete a project given by the sponsor. HORST Engineering is proud to be a 2025-2026 sponsor for the 3 years in a row!
MEM students have a range of skills including technical engineering, finance and accounting, project management, marketing, six sigma, and supply chain. Sponsors of the program present a challenge, or idea, to a group of students. Collaboratively, the sponsor and student work together to create the solution. Sponsors gain access to UConn faculty, trained student engineers, as well as first-hand experience working with students who may become future employees. At the same time, students learn to work collaboratively in a real world setting while producing periodic reports on their ideas, strategy, techniques, and progress. Students begin by researching the problem, brainstorming a range of solutions, and traveling to the sponsor’s site to learn more about the sponsor and project.
Since 2022, HORST Engineering has been participating in the program and it has been beneficial to the students and our company. The sponsored project for 2025-2026 is “Autonomous Part Tray Washing System”. Last week, along with the other MEM teams, the group presented the results of the project at a student fair on the UConn Storrs campus. This week the same group visited us to share the presentation. But the continuous improvement does not stop there. Implementation of the new system will fall to our internal team. We may get help from our summer interns to accelerate our conversion to the new system and continue operations.
Congratulations and thank you to the MEM 01 and ME 25 students and to our staff for the great work and collaboration on this project. We wish the students good luck as they graduate later this month and begin the next chapter of their lives. We are already looking forward to the 2026-2027 program.
