crb846: Capstone Research Project

Capstone Overview

crb845: Capstone Research Project
Year 2, Spring Semester (1 credit)

The completion of the M.S. in Biotechnology degree includes a final capstone thesis paper that demonstrates a full and complete understanding of your work in the program. The capstone is an enriching opportunity for each student to pursue a deeper analysis and understanding of a topic of personal interest.

For the capstone project, each student will:

• Identify and define an important global problem, then identify and define a novel biotechnology-based technology solution to that problem
• Analyze the economic logic of your problem and solution:  Who are the customers and who will pay for the product?  Is there a reasonable market for the product?  Could a company charge enough to warrant development of the product?  Who are the current and potential competitors?
• Identify insightful business and technical questions to research
• Determine the most effective resources to research the problem
• Describe the technical and business research findings clearly, concisely, and logically
• Identify a company to implement your proposed solution to augment their current portfolio
• Analyze and interpret both technical and business findings critically reliant on your learning throughout the program
• Discuss global / international technical and business considerations (using information and tools covered throughout the M.S. in Biotechnology Program)
• Identify credible business and technical solutions and recommendations

Based on your analysis, propose a strategy for your selected company to implement your technology.  Discuss obstacles and challenges associated with the implementation of your proposed solutions and strategy.  Acknowledge unanswered / unanswerable questions.  Create a succinct and complete executive summary that covers all of the major discussion points in the entire paper.