Capstone Projects
The Capstone Project is the culminating experience of the MSIS program, designed to significantly enhance its hands-on focus. This three-credit component allows students to gain in-depth, practical experience in key areas of business and technology.
Students work in groups on consulting projects for real-world organizations, ranging from small businesses to large corporations and nonprofits. Students are challenged to conduct thorough research and analysis, then work to implement their findings to improve the sponsor’s information systems practices.
Students are supported by faculty members with a wealth of industry experience who serve as advisors. They oversee capstone requirements, recruit sponsors, and provide essential support as students navigate this challenging and rewarding experience.
“The capstone project offers so much experience, which is primarily what employers are looking for. I have certifications, but I always get asked in interviews about my experience. Many times they say, ‘Tell us about a challenge you experienced’ and this capstone project is always an option. There are so many times in an interview where I can think back to my capstone project.”
– Andy Adamson, project manager
Past Projects
Previous sponsors include organizations like Larry H. Miller Auto Group, Utah Transit Authority (UTA), Workers Compensation Fund, Twitch, Extra Space Storage, and various departments within the University of Utah.
Ace Intermountain Recycling – Automating Data Analytics
The objective of this sponsored capstone project was to automate a monthly Excel scorecard used by staff and executives at Ace Intermountain Recycling. Previously, this scorecard was tabulated manually every month, requiring 5-10 work hours from employees. Tracking metrics this way was not only time-consuming for employees but meant the data was only as recent as when it was last collected manually.
The final result of this capstone project was an automated dashboard easily accessible via a web browser that displays the information and metrics originally calculated manually. It can be accessed at any time, continuously updates with new data, and is easy for management to maintain. View Project Report
“The capstone project benefitted my technical skills a lot. We never really worked with APIs and in this project we worked with a couple of APIs directly. We utilized Python and Microsoft’s Power BI platform quite extensively. I’ve been utilizing all of these technologies in my current project at work. I gained real-world technical skills with real-world situations and it’s been benefitting my work projects.”
– Connor Bryner, team member
“You always learn new things and get put in environments that you are completely unfamiliar with. There’s just a lot of learning to be done in that kind of space and it looks good on the resume to have a real project you worked on and completed. … [I chose this project because] it seemed like a small company that I could really do a lot for, which I think also makes it fun. I felt like I could make a big difference; they would actually use what I did if I did it well.”
– Jared Kujawa, team member