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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Jr., Paul J. Coyne; F. Xavier Spiegel

Session 2364 Incorporating Materials Science Projects in a Capstone Design Course F. Xavier Spiegel and Paul J. Coyne, Jr. Loyola College Department of Electrical Engineering & Engineering ScienceAbstract: The format, goals, and philosophy of the Loyola College Engineering Science Program’s capstonedesign course will be discussed in addition to particular projects based on course work in Materials Sciencethat were attempted in recent years. Design projects in

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Martin T. Hagan; Carl D. Latino

ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings 1 Most capstone design courses achieve only a few of these desired results. In order for students to learnall of these important skills, the course must have certain characteristics, First, the projects must involve real-world problems; they must be challenging but doable. Second, the projects need to be organized into teams,with good supervision and guidance for each team. Third, and most importantly, there must be a firmperformance requirement. Unless the students are aware that performance, and not just effort (which isdifficult, if not impossible, to quantify), will be the

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

William Michalson; Robert Labonté

Session 1232 Capstone Design in the ECE Curriculum: Assessing the Quality of Undergraduate Projects at WPI William Michalson, Robert Labont6 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Worcester Polytechnic Institute AbstractSince adopting the WPI-Plan in 1972 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, one of the degree requirements forundergraduates has been the completion of a Major Qualifying Project. Although this project

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Wall; Kathy Belknap

experience either through coop programs and/or the senior design experience. The twosemester senior design sequence offered at the University of Idaho attempts to provide a credible industrialdesign experience by working with industry sponsors. The first semester centers on an individual project and the second semester on a team project. For theteam projects, the instructor identifies an industry sponsor, a support faculty and a group of interested students.During the initial team project identification phase, the instructor works with industry to establish expectations,limitations, and benefits. Involving industry with capstone design keeps the university in touch with industryneeds, helps the students to understand their future role in the

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark F. Costello; Jerry W. Samples

Session 3625 Client Based Capstone Design in Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy Jerry W. Samples, Mark F. Costello United States Military AcademyAbstract: Over the past year the Mechanical Engineering Program at West Point developed a client based capstonedesign course. The clients for the capstone projects are Army Research, Development, and Engineering Centers,Army Research Laboratories, or other Department of the Army agencies with a need. Since cadet interest

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

George Ioannou; Michael P. Deisenroth

I .— - ...... .. Session 3257 . .. . . . The Plant Layout Project Revisited Michael P. Deisenroth, George Ioannou Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University The plant layout project has been the mainstay of industrial engineering curriculum for many years.Yet, even today, some schools miss the educational opportunities offered by these projects. While workingthrough the steps of the layout design process, students can be

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard W. Crain; Michael S. Trevisan; Kenneth L. Gentili; Dale E. Calkins; D. C. Davis

project and for helping students invest their energies appropriately.The following steps, resembling those used in the engineering design process, will lead to aproject that meets the objectives one establishes. 1. Define the general purpose of the project—the context of this project in the course, its length, its purpose (e.g., to introduce students to the design process, to provide a capstone experience, to give relevance to a concept). 2. Select a project topic that fits student interest and instructor’s learning objectives. 3. Identify categories of design competencies to be developed in students (e.g., teamwork, idea generation). 4. Write a draft project assignment. 5. Define the steps students would follow in completing the

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Lucian P. Fabiano

}. 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ,,.y,...:’~ . The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Engineering I - ..-. Technology department has responded to the need for graduates who have basic program management skills through its senior capstone -project courses. These courses requires that its students develop a prolect following industrial development methodologies. Student projects serve as the vehicles to learn the basic concepts of a project’s life cycle and its phases, concurrent engineering

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Aaron R. Byerley; Edward M. O'Brien

efforts while still allowing the students to makeand learn from their mistakes.I. Introduction-- Understanding the Challenges The Mercer University School of Engineering has a two-quarter senior capstone design sequence.The purpose of this sequence is to have the students integrate their engineering science knowledge withdesign methodology, decision analysis, and project management. This can be very challenging for thestudents. The open-ended nature of a substantive design project presents special problems for students whohave spent most of their time and energy in engineering science courses which have emphasized analysis.Recent progress in spreading design across the curriculum has helped to remind students how analysis can beused to

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Silvia G. Middleton; Monika Lumsdaine; Kimberly A. Buch; J. William Shelnutt

comfortableuse of the thinking styles available to them, preferably through curriculum integration of these skills. Second year results recently obtained have confirmed the original findings. Data was also gathered forseniors in the metallurgy capstone design class at Michigan Technological University in 1994-95. The instructorswere most impressed with the results of teams who had the strongest right-brain thinking preferences. The UNCCharlotte project is designed to provide additional, more detailed quantitative and qualitative assessment andcomparison to this earlier, more limited study. Curriculum Development Objectives. Studies throughout the literature certify the need for early studentinvolvement in design to encourage retention. The

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert T. Balmer; Kevin J. Renken

seniorundergraduates entitled Mechanical Engineering Experimentation. This acknowledged(’-s) course is a required,three-credit, first semester, capstone course for all senior mechanical engineering students. The course wasdesigned around the concept of providing our students with a taste of real mechanical engineering bychallenging them with small open-ended projects of industrial origin. The course focuses on defining andsolving problems of engineering value by experimental methods, integrating the necessary fundamentalprinciples learned in previous theoretical-oriented classes. Thus, the course is able to aide the mechanicalengineering student in bridging the gap between the abstractness of academia and the practicality of industry. The majority of

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Donald G. Kelley

.” Program, School of Technology, College of The students are empowered to formulate Engineering and Applied Sciences at tilzonastrategies to fulfill the stated mission. They are also State University, where he teachesempowered to: manufacturing engineering technology (MET)● Allocate financial resources within budget courses. guidelines. Develop effective self directed activities. Succeed or fail.Thus, MET 460 Manufacturing Capstone Project givesthe student the freedom to design, evaluate, analyze,and manufacture components, assemblies and systems.3 The capstone course Instructor uses this innovativetechnique to create a learning environment to preparestudents

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Jerry Watts; George E. Piper; Carl E. Wick; Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic

continuum will take students through simple design exercisesin lower-level courses and bring them through successively more challenging experiences to a “capstone” designshortly before graduation. We believe that this is a very good and necessary path that all engineering studentsshould take to reach competence in their trade. We have also found that it is very diffkult to find realistic, simple, unconstrained design exercises for lower-level engineering courses. In this paper we outline a project that was used in a junior-level sensors course forsystems engineering majors. The project required each student to design a portion of the systems needed tosuccessfi.dly complete a balloon-borne environment sensing mission. In this mission a

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

John T. Berry; Gregory L. Ferguson

* economic considerations* modern communication technology Course Implementation The course, as implemented, is roughly equivalent to the senior capstone design project, but it requires aproduct be manufactured which is not always the case with the capstone project. Since this is an electivecourse, students taking this class have a second design project that is in addition to the required Capstone designproject. The students are given a short problem statement with a limited amount of background informationabout the hypothetical project company they are employed by. From the problem statement, they formulate thefunctional and/or needs requirement(s) which leads to generating a statement of work. In the industrial worldthis forms

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

James V. Masi

New England College in 1982 setup, as part of its Capstone Course, called Senior Design Projects, a cooperative utilizing the facilities of the school, industry, andhospital, the talents of professor, medical professional, industrial technologist, and student, and the base of ideas generated by allparties, including NASA’s Technology Utilization Services (as found in NASA Tech Briefs). The meetings of the parties involved,student, professor, medical professional, industrial advisor, and patient, was part of the structure which proceeded quite easily. Theorchestration of the effort was the only portion of the program remaining to be clarified. How would costs be shared? How wouldtime be allocated? Who would own the invention if one resulted

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

T. D. Moustakas; M. S. Unlu; M. F. Ruane; M. C. Teich; B. E. A. Saleh; B. B. Goldberg

Annual Conference Proceedings ‘“..,~yy’:3. Capstone Design CasesIn the capstone senior design project, students complete an open-ended group project with emphasis onoral, written, and technical engineering skills. Faculty, alumni, industry colleagues, and others serve asthe students ‘ ‘customers”, setting project requirements and helping to evaluate the students. Projectrequirements are negotiated in initial informal face-to-face meetings of customers and design teams. Eightto ten different projects are completed each semester. Appropriate research cases will be substituted forthe physics advanced laboratory course. Capstone design cases based on photonics research and applications are being prepared for use

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen J. Ressler; Thomas Lenox

-lesson basis. Without exception,courses that do not use daily homework use quizzes or homework sets (called special problems) to provide anassessment after each major block of instruction (normally 3 to 5 lessons). All courses administer at least onemid-term examination and all courses except the Capstone design course have a comprehensive final exam.These examinations provide successively broader evaluations of students’ command of civil engineering subjects.All courses which include engineering design content use design projects to assess students’ ability to apply thedesign process in a given subject area (e.g., steel, concrete, drainage systems). These projects also provide ameans of evaluating creativity, communication skills, and the

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Steve Moser; Michael Bluhm; Allan Goodman; Sarah Lynn Garrett

been devoted to improving individual courses.Our project team has completed a first iteration of curriculum reform which uses applications, woven throughoutthe engineering curriculum as a means to motivate learning and provide relevance to course work. This paperreviews our work to date, summarizes what we are learning about the systems required for sustained reform,and outlines our direction for the next step of work. We will also discuss the impact of this project on ourdepartment and some of the interesting dimensions of what is required to pull off reform across the curriculum.Our Initial Vision We have identified a problem with engineering education. Our pragmatic students want to know whybefore they are motivated to 1- but we wait

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ian A. Waitz; Edward C. Barrett

students are interested in the subject matter and motivated to learn.2.2 Experimental Projects Lab Objectives The Experimental Projects Lab is a required part of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Departmentundergraduate curriculum. It serves as one of two capstone courses (the other course is a senior-level systemsdesign project) and is taken by students in their junior or senior year. The primary objective of the course is toprovide exposure to the methods, processes, and techniques involved in conceiving and conducting an experi-mental research project. Each group of two students chooses an original research project and over the period oftwo semesters conducts research under the guidance of a faculty advisor. The distinction between

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert M. Baldwin; Barbara Olds; Ronald Miller

-building [2]. As shown in Figure 1, students learn fundamental skills in engineering graphics(visualization, sketching, and drafting) and computer applications (word processing, spreadsheets,presentation graphics, x-y plotting, and computer-aided design) in their first-year courses, EP 101 and 102.They also learn and practice technical oral and written communication and teamwork in the contex~ of“cliented” project work. Second year students learn to solve problems using computer programming (EP 201 )and conclude their EPICS experience in a capstone project course (EP 202) where they utilize the skills theyhave acquired in previous EPICS courses. EP 101

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Virendra K. Varma; Mohammad Najafi

detailed analyses of 3 Trenchless construction of trenchless projects trenchless design and Technology utilizing horizontal directional drilling construction. (Mini, Midi, and Maxi), pipeline rehabilitation, microtunneling, pipe jacking, auger boring, and construction of temporary structures. 4 Topics in Heavy Underground construction is discussed Capstone course with 3 Construction in length. trenchless applications.THE CAPSTONE COURSE INCONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY Advances in trenchless

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark Gordon; Joel Greenstein; Jack Hebrank; Douglas E. Hirt; Daniel P. Schrage; Bill Mason; Tom Miller; Jim Nau

ofproduct-based projects. In the past three years the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NCSU hasestablished an entity called the Undergraduate Design Center (UDC) as a vehicle for supporting seniorcapstone design projects. Most UDC projects are supported by industrial sponsors who pay a membership feeto the UDC. The success of the UDC has been overwhelming, as attested by students, faculty, and industryparticipants. In end-of-semester surveys, more than 50% of the seniors participating in a capstone designproject through the UDC have stated that it was the best course they have taken at NCSU. This project seeks toextend this type of positive experience from the senior level down to the lower levels. The focus

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

M. Dayne Aldridge

., "Educating Tomorrow's Engineers," IEEE Education Society Newsletter, Fall 1994, pp. 1-5.7. Aldridge, et. al., published paper on first cross-disciplinary senior design project coordinated by center.8. Introduction to Team-Based Design, NSF Grant # DUE-9354523, February 1, 1994-September 30,1996.9. Dally, J. W. and Zhang, G. M., "A Freshman Engineering Design Course," Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 82, No. 2, pp. 83-91.10. Grubbs, Lbert B. Jr. and Zoghi, Ehbood, "Overview of a Capstone Project Prerequisite Course," The International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 386-390.11. Brickell, Col James L., Proter, Col David B., Reynolds, Col Michael F. and Cosgrove, Capt Richard D., "Assigning

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Mohamad Qatu; Ajay Mahajan; David McDonald

faculty involvement in both types of courses hasbeen encouraged by the recent American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) report, “EngineeringEducation for a Changing World.”b These courses, however, frequently require the special expertise ofmultiple instructors in a team-teaching format. The team-teaching format is also frequently necessary to meet the demands of engineering coursesthat cover a wide range of topics, especially introductory courses and senior level capstone project courses.Engineering educators are concerned today about helping first-year students to succeed. As a result, thereis an emphasis on the development of introductory courses designed to support and encourage entry levelstudents in engineering.’ These

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Christopher G. Braun

Session 1532 Hardware Homework using a Student Data Acquisition System Christopher G. Braun Colorado School of MinesOverview A project developed by a student team under close guidance of a faculty memberis underway to build a very affordable yet highly functional data acquisition system. Ourplan is to introduce this system to our students in the Engineering Division's six week longSummer Field Session for students between their Sophomore and Junior year. Eachstudent would buy and build their own data acquisition system. In

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Herbert Hess

may also be done for comparison. The superiority of adrive to resistance variation for speed control becomes obvious in this experiment, both in terms of howthe system behaves and in what we can demonstrate conveniently by experiment. Mathematical simulation accompanies the laboratory experiments. By looping about the operatingfrequency, but keeping constant Volts/Hertz, a family of torque, efficiency, and power factor curves canbe generated as a function of speed in little more time than it takes to find the nominal frequency case ofeach. Varying only voltage leads to curves for the reduced flux case. Details of this are presented in [24].Capstone Design Project In recent years, power electronic drive systems have changed the

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph A. Shaeiwitz

history of these individual projects, that students would revoh if thesewere implemented today. Questionnaires are a usefil assessment measure and should be part of anassessment plan; however, our experience is that the fraction actually returned is not sufficient for them to bethe basis of a good assessment plan. There are other excellent methods of assessment available. In fact, mostdepartments are probably already doing things that can, with only minor modifications and formalization, formthe basis of an excellent assessment plan. Two examples are portfolios of student work and well-designed andevaluated capstone experiences. Portfolios are a documentation of experiences that demonstrate that students are achieving statedgoals. They are

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

B. Grossman; William H. Mason

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering) will take several core courses together, and will work inteams composed of students from various departments on the degree-completing final design project. The Practice-Oriented Master’s Degree (POMD) program in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering is partof an emerging curriculum wide focus on design and engineering practice in our department.7 This includeshaving freshmen work with the seniors on their capstone design project as part of a SUCCEED project,8,9 andcontinues through Ph.D. level research in design and optimization conducted in the Multidisciplinary Analysisand Design (MAD) Center for Advanced Vehicles at Virginia Tech.10 This emphasis led to the recent additionof an Aerospace Manufacturing Course,11

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert V. Peltier; Farouk Attia

EngineeringTechn-ts must-also inte~act with customers and make persuasive presentations.3) Work as a team member without c[ose supervision under pressure in a culturally diverse environment.Virtually all design work is done by a diverse team from all parts of the corporation. The successfi.dEngineering Technologist will be able to deal with this diverse group to achieve success for the organization.The individual contributor has given way to concurrent engineering teams that can design and bring products to 5market fhster than the competition. Interpersonal and leadership skills are in great demands Take theinitiative to develop those skills through work experience, technical societies or Capstone Project teams.4) Have

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1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Nagy N. Bengiamin

accessory components will add to the laboratory inventory and provide more flexibility inidentifying projects. We expect students to be better prepared for capstone design after they have completed thissenior laboratory. VII. Acknowledgment This work was partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through ILI grant # DUE-9351740. The School of Engineering and Mines at the University of North Dakota provided matching funds andphysical space renovation. VIII. References1. James C. Conwell, George D. Catalano, and John E. Beard, “A Case Study in Creative Problem Solving inEngineering Design,” Journal of Engineering Education, October 1993