Thank You for Supporting BYU Capstone's Engineering Hope Initiative
We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who submitted project ideas for our Engineering Hope campaign and to those who generously stepped up to sponsor these efforts. Your involvement has made a real difference.
We are especially grateful to the BYU Ballard Center for Social Impact for their invaluable assistance in identifying organizations and connecting us with local partners on the ground. These partners will continue advancing the impact of these projects long after our student teams graduate.
While we did not quite reach our goal of creating opportunities for 150 students, we are excited to announce that nearly 100 students will work on projects that are for the benefit of the world, a phrase that reflects BYU’s commitment to lasting, meaningful impact.
We will continue to post updates to this page throughout the year, sharing highlights from the incredible work our student teams are doing. Please check back to see their progress and the difference they are making around the world.
2025-2026 Engineering Hope Project Sponsors
We are deeply grateful to the organizations and individuals who stepped forward to sponsor projects for this year’s Capstone Engineering Hope initiative. Your generosity and vision are empowering nearly 100 BYU engineering students to apply their education to real-world challenges in ways that are truly for the benefit of the world.
These projects would not be possible without the generous support of these sponsors. Thank you for investing in our students and in the communities they will serve.
These projects would not be possible without the generous support of these sponsors. Thank you for investing in our students and in the communities they will serve.
Milt and Heidi Shipp
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Michelle Burnham
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Johnny and Verlanne Johnson
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Brent and Kathryn Woods Foundation
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Partnerships for Global Surgery
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Wilkinson Electric
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Trove Brands (home of Owala, BlenderBottle, and more)
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Laurie and Larry Ball
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Sam and Julie Billin
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BYU ALUMNI OF WAVETRONIX
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BYU Global Engineering Outreach
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When we serve others we serve God...He expects us to use our gifts, talents, and abilities to bless the lives of Heavenly Fathers children. We are to use the gifts we’ve been given: time, talents, and blessings to serve Heavenly Fathers children, especially the most vulnerable and needy.
Elder Dale G. Renlund
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2025-2026 PROJECTS
Once the teams begin work on the projects, the images below will become links to pages with updates and information about each project. We invite you to follow the progress of these Capstone teams.
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Microgrid for Human Trafficking Rehab Compound in Nigeria
A BYU Engineering Capstone team is creating a solar‑battery microgrid for a Nigerian rehabilitation compound, partnered with the FoRB Foundation. Stable, easily serviced power will light dorms, charge devices, run sewing machines, and even support welding lessons. Reliable energy means safer nights, constant connection, and hands‑on training, giving trafficking survivors the skills and confidence to rebuild independent lives.
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Clean Water for Odisha India
In partnership with Gram Vikas, a nonprofit organization with over 45 years of experience in rural development in Odisha, India, this humanitarian Capstone project will focus on providing clean water to underserved villages. Many of these communities face significant challenges from nitrate and bacterial contamination in their drinking water. Our student team will work with local leaders and Gram Vikas experts to develop sustainable, community-operated water treatment solutions that address these urgent health and environmental concerns.
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Empowering Mobility-Challenged Farmers
Empower mobility-challenged farmers with a student-engineered, motorized harvest cart that glides between crop rows on wide, soil-friendly wheels, restoring independent work and income to those who can no longer walk. By sponsoring this project, you’ll fund the design, prototyping, and field deployment of an affordable, open-source solution that began with one rural Utah family’s need but is scalable to smallholder communities worldwide—turning a single act of compassion into a harvest of hope.
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Smart Relief for Ukraine
We are exploring a Capstone project in partnership with Center for Humanitarian Technology (CFHT) to support their Humanitarian Assistance and Response Platform (HARP), with a specific focus on aiding operations in Ukraine. A student team will collaborate closely with CFHT to develop a key software or systems component that enhances the platform’s ability to deliver rapid, coordinated aid in the region.
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Building with the Earth
In partnership with Africompassion, students will design a low-cost, interlocking earth block machine that allows local families and schools to build safe, durable structures using the soil beneath their feet.
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Restoring Mobility in Gaza and Beyond
Working alongside Amparo Prosthetics, projects will focus on creating modular pediatric prosthetics and field tools that allow for compassionate care in clinics with limited resources. (Two unique projects)
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RescueRat
APOPO’s RescueRat program turns friendly African giant pouched rats into lifesaving first responders. This project builds an ultra-wideband + IMU tracking system that pinpoints each rat within 0.5 m beneath collapsed buildings, streaming a live map of likely survivor locations when GPS is useless. By fusing low-power electronics, advanced sensor fusion, and rugged packaging, the student team will deliver an affordable field kit that disaster crews can deploy worldwide to speed up search-and-rescue operations.
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Real-time Language Translation for Historic Site Tours
Real-time language translation is needed at places like church historic sites to enable visitors to fully engage with the tours and sites. The project will not only enhance the experience of non-English-speaking visitors but also empower tour guides to serve more effectively across language barriers without needing fluency in multiple languages.
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Low-cost, Multi-link Satellite Terminal
The Africa Central Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints requires remote internet for hundreds of thousands of remote members to increase self-reliance through education (e.g. Gospel Literacy, Succeed in School, BYU Pathway Worldwide, S.T.E.M. and more) and increase remote jobs (e.g. and Bloom). A Capstone team will design and develop routing software, prototype a dual-link village terminal, and test/evaluate the terminal with two spaced-based internet solutions in remote villages in Africa, providing cost-efficient, reliable internet connectivity across remote areas.
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Addressing Student Housing Insecurity
Help bring dignity and comfort to students facing housing insecurity. This project will support a Capstone team in designing an ultra-efficient shower system for use in tiny homes. The goal is to provide a hygienic, space-conscious solution that fits the needs of students living in transitional or low-cost housing.
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Low-Cost Airway Simulator for Life-Saving Training
To address the global shortage of trained providers in airway foreign body removal, a BYU Capstone team is designing an affordable, anatomically accurate simulator that can be built using locally available materials in low- and middle-income countries. This hands-on project empowers students to apply mechanical design and medical innovation skills to create a scalable training tool that could help save the lives of children worldwide by improving access to critical surgical skills. (Two unique projects)
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ATL Meetinghouse Wall System Design – Africa Central Area
To support the rapid growth of the Church in the Africa Central Area, this project seeks to improve the construction process for modular meetinghouses known as ATL (Alternate to Lease) buildings. A Capstone team will identify and evaluate wall system materials that are faster to build, more affordable, and better suited to rural conditions. The team will conduct on-site research in Africa, test local materials, and develop a decision-making tool to help select the best wall system for each location—ultimately enabling more worship spaces to be built more quickly and sustainably.
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