Guidelines for preparing student capstone design RFPs

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, through the Student Activities Committee, administers ten aerospace design competitions annually. The committee solicits topics and Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from the Institute's Technical Committees in order to provide design professors and students with realistic, relevant, and challenging design problems of current interest to industry. Concurrently, the topics and RFPs must be tailored to the students' experience and abilities to provide for a good vehicle with which to teach aerospace systems design in accordance with capstone design course requirements spelled out by accreditation criteria. The combination of students' lack of experience and high industry expectations sometimes generates topics and RFPs with challenges to the students that do not provide the best teaching vehicles for design. Based on the experience of the Student Activities Committee in reviewing RFPs, guidelines for their development are provided which highlight student limitations and emphasize competition and accreditation goals. An example of an RFP suitable for student needs is provided.