University at Buffalo (UB)
Engineering Intramurals
In engineering intramurals, groups of three to four students work on short-term industry-based problems (concept generation, analysis, prototyping).
Submit an Intramural Idea
We invite industry partners, community organizations and faculty/staff/students to submit problems for consideration. > Learn more about submitting a project idea.
An engineering intramural is any problem-based extracurricular engineering activity that provides an authentic (i.e., “real-world”) learning experience for students.
The source of the problem can be industry, the community or can be defined internally by students and/or faculty. These experiences are considered "resume builders" and are a direct response to industry feedback reflecting a desire to see relevant engineering experiences, outside the classroom, on student resumes. Participation in engineering intramurals may also lead to internship offers in some cases.
Earn a Digital Badge
Students who participate in engineering intramural projects are eligible to earn a digital badge upon completion of the project and its co-curricular requirements. Digital badges, which students can embed on digital resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and online portfolios, demonstrate completion of the co-curricular criteria and contain evidence of the competencies you gained by participating in the project.
Students who join an intramural team are provided with the materials needed to earn the digital badge.
Apply for a Project
Students are encouraged to apply for intramural opportunities when they are available. Intramural opportunities are posted on the UB Career Services job board, Bullseye powered by Handshake, under the company entity UB Inc.
Develop your own Intramural
Students may develop their own intramural activities as well. You are encouraged to work with Dr. Andrew Olewnik to get started. To qualify as an intramural, an activity should:
- Involve multiple students and solve an engineering problem
- Follow basic project management principles for scoping and scheduling
- Follow a project plan that includes:
- Developing a problem statement (objectives/requirements/constraints) and agree on deliverables
- Have at least one mid-term review meeting with an appropriate reviewer/mentor external to the project team
- Hold a final presentation and submit a short technical report for consideration by project mentor and client
Example Intramural Projects
Companies and alumni often sponsor intramural projects:
Explore the impact of transitioning systems to non-fossil fuel sources, and consider the unique challenges that legislative action has on this transition.
Determine likelihood of a client seeking a mortgage after pre-approval, and timelines for those decisions.
Propose a toiling system while working with available resources and challenges present in the area.
Redesign current sports statistics module to broaden its use with another sport.
Research and design a boat hull that maximizes efficiency on a variety of measures.
Design a hydraulic structure that prevents the upstream migration of the Sea Lamprey using velocities that exceed their swim performance capacity, for all flow conditions.
Your UB SEAS club can host a project for your members:
Design a rudimentary laparoscopic robot using CAD modeling and 3D printing technology to mimic current laparoscopy models.
Use Python-based web scraping to aggregate drug interaction information from government resources, journal articles, and online medical forums into a single database.
Create a device that can give able-bodied people a greater understanding of the issues involved in prosthetic design. This could be a device that mimics the feeling someone with a residual limb would experience while using their prosthetic in day-to-day life.