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A Proposed Interdisciplinary Senior Capstone Course

David K. Probst Southeast Missouri State University

Abstract

The Engineering Physics Program at Southeast Missouri State University recently received accreditation from the EAC of ABET. One lingering concern from that process was that students did not get sufficient experience on multidisciplinary teams. The concern arises because the program has low enrollment and primarily an electrical engineering flavor. Another lingering concern was that the Engineering Physics degree requires about thirteen more credit hours than most other programs at Southeast, which might tend to reduce its competitiveness when recruiting majors. In order to address these concerns, we have developed a senior capstone course that is being reviewed for inclusion in the University Studies Program, which is Southeast’s general education program. The course requires students from at least two departments in the College of Science and Mathematics to work on a project requiring expertise from both disciplines. This paper describes the course.

I. Introduction

The Engineering Physics Program at Southeast Missouri State University integrates a typical physics program and a typical electrical engineering program. The Program has a core set of courses and two options. The Applied Physics and Engineering (APE) Option consists of additional physics and electrical engineering courses and the Computer Applications in Physics and Engineering (CAPE) Option consists of computer science and digital electronics courses. All programs at Southeast must also satisfy a general education component that consists of forty- eight hours. Of this, only nine hours is automatically satisfied as part of our program.

There were a few issues remaining after our initial evaluation by the EAC of ABET. One issue was that our students did not gain experience on truly multidisciplinary teams because the program is small and is primarily electrical in flavor. Another issue was that because of the large general education requirement at Southeast, our program required about thirteen more hours than most others on campus, putting it at a competitive disadvantage in the recruitment of majors. In order to address these two issues in a novel way, we have developed an interdisciplinary senior seminar course that is being reviewed for inclusion in the University Studies Program. The course will provide a major design experience for students from at least two departments in the College of Science and Mathematics as they work on a project requiring expertise and faculty from both disciplines.

This paper will describe our program, the proposed course, UI4xx Capstone Experience, how it fits into the University Studies Program, and how it fits with the objectives of ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 1 Criterion 3.

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Probst, D. (2002, June), A Proposed Interdisciplinary Senior Capstone Course Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10307