Sponsor Experience

There are many benefits to sponsoring a capstone, including:

• Customized Engagements: Each partnership is designed to meet a sponsor’s specific objectives. Through the capstone program, partners receive actionable recommendations, proof-of-concept tools, and direct exposure to advanced data science and AI methodologies — all while engaging with the next generation of data science professionals.
• Secured Partnerships: When appropriate, capstone projects operate under formal agreements that clarify data access, intellectual property, and expectations, while maintaining a flexible structure that accommodates a wide range of sponsor needs.
• Robust Solutions: Students are trained to work with large, complex datasets and deliver solutions that drive decision-making. Project outcomes range from predictive models and analytical frameworks to deployable, web-based applications with measurable impact.
• Multi-Disciplinary Impact: Capstone projects span a wide range of domains, addressing complex societal and scientific questions — from improving electrolarynx speech-to-text systems to analyzing how health events affect patient care and outcomes.
• Ethical Data Practice: Responsible data science is foundational to every project. Student teams are trained to identify, evaluate, and mitigate ethical risks, including bias in open-source models; ensuring solutions are both technically sound and socially responsible.

Companies and Community Partners

Engaging with the capstone program offers a low-risk, high-return opportunity for industry, nonprofit, and government organizations seeking innovative approaches to strategic or operational data challenges. 

Academic and Health Researchers

The School of Data Science collaborates with academic and health system researchers to apply data science at scale in support of scientific discovery and clinical innovation. 

Successful capstone projects are built on strong collaboration. Ideal sponsors bring:

• A clearly defined question or challenge well suited to data science or AI approaches
• Relevant data available at the start of the project
• The ability to engage with student teams through weekly 30- to 60-minute meetings over the duration of the project, which spans slightly longer than one semester 

• Provide access to data within one month of project start.
• Assign at least one point of contact to serve as project liaison to the student team.
• Attend regular meetings with the student team (e.g., biweekly or monthly) to ensure project progress is satisfactory and issues/questions are addressed in a timely manner. These meetings are typically conducted via web conference. Travel to Charlottesville is not required.

Two progress reports with work plan and timelines are developed and shared with the sponsor team and faculty mentor. These reports help ensure alignment with the project's goals. The project ends with a research paper, a technical presentation, and delivery of all artifacts. The artifacts may include documented software, a dashboard, models, and results. Students are encouraged to socialize their findings and provide walkthroughs before the end of capstone. This allows for a smooth handoff to the sponsor. Some sponsors have asked student teams to present their work at their organization and at conferences. 

Learn more about the application process and timeline on the capstone application website.