Capstone Projects

Capstone Projects are an opportunity for undergraduate students to apply their education towards solutions for ‘real world’ problems.

Industry and community partners contribute the challenges and context for the Capstone Project, and in return the solutions and intellectual property arising from the Capstone Project are assigned to them at no-cost. Learn more about different Capstone programs and contacts.

1. Framework

The framework for Capstone Project success is based on time-tested cornerstones:

  1. The University and Faculties have invested in education, oversight, and guidance to keep Capstone Projects within scope, on-time, and with exemplary results;
  2. UBC deeply values the participation of industry and community sponsors and understands that in order for them to participate clear processes are needed to protect sponsors' existing IP and confidential material, and to ensure any new IP that results from the project will be assigned to the sponsor
  3. The capstone students are not yet professionals and the primary purpose for their participation in capstone is to enhance their education. Thus, the defined processes must provide strong protection for the students commensurate with their level of experience.

2. Process

An initial quick assessment is made by the capstone instructor and/or UILO to determine whether the sponsor has an existing relationship to UBC, whether that creates real or perceived conflicts of interest, or includes other research activities for which agreements are already in place. 

External sponsors

  • External companies and partners are unlikely to have a conflict of interest as their only relationship to the students is through the project. 
  • For sponsors with no real or perceived conflict of interest, UBC provides standard agreements to protect the confidential information sponsors bring to the project and to provide a clear, no-cost path for any new intellectual property developed in the project to be assigned to the sponsor.

Confidentiality

The industry or community partner’s confidential information is kept confidential;

  • UBC will execute a Confidentiality Agreement with the partner, and educate faculty, staff and students involved in the Capstone Project as to the provisions;
  • The Capstone Project Confidentiality Agreement is industry standard and requires no revisions to protect the interests of the industry or community partner;

IP Assignment

The industry or community partner will receive assignment of any arising intellectual property from the Capstone Project;

  • UBC’s IP Policy normally conveys ownership of intellectual property discovered during the course of research to the University, EXCEPT for intellectual property developed by UBC students as a result of coursework (UBC Policy LR11 – Inventions; Article 2);
  • An IP Assignment for intellectual property arising from the Capstone Project to the industry or community partner, from the students, can be found here;
  • The IP Assignment is crafted in a manner that shield the students from any future liability from the industry or community partner’s use of the assigned intellectual property.

About the Agreements

For industry partners who require their legal counsel to review the agreements, please keep in mind that this is not a consulting agreement, which carries liabilities and rights commensurate with the payments made to such a professional. The Capstone Projects are meant to provide new experiences for the students, who are unpaid, and at the same time provide opportunities for the industry and community partners to obtain new insights and solutions, and the ability to use them as they wish. Additionally, UBC students undertake hundreds of externally-sponsored capstone projects every year and, given UBC’s limited legal resources, all externally-sponsored capstone projects must work from these agreements. For these reasons, modifications to the agreements will not be accepted.

Sponsors with an affiliation or existing relationship with UBC

  • Sponsors with an affiliation or existing relationship with UBC may have a conflict of interest as they may have additional relationships to the students and/or university activities other than through the capstone project. These sponsors will often be:
    • Sponsors who hold any type of UBC appointment (e.g. clinicians with teaching appointments) or startups that have strong relationships to UBC (e.g. currently “incubating” within e@UBC, Hatch, etc.; or with directors who are UBC faculty/staff).
  • An assessment will be made to determine:
    • Potential conflict of interest (e.g. faculty who are supervising/grading students)
    • Relationship of capstone project to other projects sponsor may be involved in at UBC, for which other agreements may already be in place
  • Where conflicts of interest are identified, Capstone Project can still occur.  A separate process and agreement are used to both manage real or perceived conflicts of interest and to ensure that project intellectual property does not contain background IP from other research activities that belong to UBC.

Confidentiality

The industry or community partner’s confidential information is kept confidential;

  • UBC will execute a Confidentiality Agreement with the partner, and educate faculty, staff and students involved in the Capstone Project as to the provisions;
  • The Capstone Project Confidentiality Agreement is industry standard and requires no revisions to protect the interests of the industry or community partner;

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IP Assignment

Intellectual property that arises from the project will be assessed by the UILO and IP rights will be granted in consultation with the sponsor.

  • This process is the same process by which UBC assesses intellectual property developed by faculty and graduate students in other sponsored research agreements.

To provide a clear workflow for handling any new intellectual property, students who undertake these projects will be required to sign a Student-to-UBC Capstone IP Assignment Agreement. 

  • This protects the students' rights as inventors
  • It also ensures that any new intellectual property developed by a student will reside within UBC, removing the need for sponsors to negotiate with each student individually to access new intellectual property.

3. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

 

University-Industry Liaison Office signature UBC Support Programs to Advance Research Capacity

Part of the VP Research & Innovation portfolio

University-Industry Liaison Office

103-6190 Agronomy Road
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z3

UBC receives support for managing its research enterprise from the federal Research Support Fund.

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