Become a Client

ESP attributes a great deal of its success to its involvement with our clients who support and contribute to the learning experience.  Ideally there is a strong reciprocal benefit of such a partnership for both clients and students.  At the end of the term, clients receive a faculty-supervised engineering design, including human/environmental impact assessment and cost assessment.  Clients also help our engineering students engage in the social, cultural, ethical, political and economic dimensions of an engineering project.  We would like to invite you to participate as a client for a design project during the Winter term (January-April). 

 What type of design projects are we looking for?

If you decide to become a client, you would start the process by submitting a design problem.  This might involve a facility, a process, or a device.  The design problem does not have to be technically complicated but it is essential that it is a problem that has a variety of possible solutions since one of the tasks of the students is to produce a number of solutions to the problem and then systematically compare them in order to choose the most appropriate one.  Projects can come from industry, alumni, community organizations, schools, as well as individuals.  Some of our past projects include space redesigns, equipment designs, accessibility designs, inventory systems, virtual facilties, and energy and time-saving systems.  Specific examples of past projects can be found in the Past Projects section of our website.

What is required of a client?

All that we ask is your attendance at three meetings over a three month period.  Meetings may take place on the University of Toronto, St. George campus or at the project location.  Clients are assigned to an ESP team and, in January, the members of the team will meet with you to discuss the problem.  They will then consider and evaluate a number of possible solutions to your problem and report back to you with their recommendations.  In consultation with you, they will settle on a final design and develop this in detail.  At the end of the term they will give you a final written report and make a short presentation (about a half an hour) on their project.

Submitting a Project

If you would like to become a client, you can do so easily by completing a Client Submission Form online.  If you think that you might be interested in becoming a client but have some questions about the process, please contact the ESP Office.

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