AC 2007-778: AN ALGORITHM FOR PROJECT ASSIGNMENT IN CAPSTONEDESIGNTheodor Freiheit, University of CalgaryJulian Wood, University of Calgary Page 12.196.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 An Algorithm for Project Assignment in Capstone DesignAbstractThis paper presents an algorithm to automate the assignment of students to project teams.Students bid on a limited set of choices of the projects being offered. The algorithm thenattempts to place students into projects such that the overall project assignment solution providesthe highest ‘satisfaction’. Satisfaction is defined by a scoring methodology for assigningstudents to their preferred project. The
AC 2007-2851: IMPACT OF STUDENT SELECTION OF DESIGN PROJECTS ONTEAM PERFORMANCEPeter Orono, Indiana University-Purdue University-IndianapolisStephen Ekwaro-Osire, Texas Tech University Page 12.827.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 IMPACT OF STUDENT SELECTION OF DESIGN PROJECTS ON TEAM PERFORMANCEAbstract In the capstone design courses, the instructor can choose among different strategies ofassigning students to project teams. One of these strategies allows the students select the projectthey would like to work on from a list. This sometimes proceeds in an ad-hoc manner. Currently,literature offers limited research that looks at
AC 2007-1699: USE OF ASSESSMENT SURVEY TO ASSIGN PROJECT TEAMSAND ROLESPromiti Dutta, Columbia UniversityAlexander Haubold, Columbia University Page 12.1526.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Use of Assessment Survey to Assign Project Teams and RolesAbstract:Effective assignment of teams and distribution of tasks within a group is an arduous task.Successful teams display harmony, successfully completed projects, and effective skill utilizationof all members. Weak teams demonstrate ineffective dynamics, poorly completed projects, andunderutilized team members. We propose a method to assign team members and to delegatemembers with equally weighted
AC 2007-758: DESIGN TEAM SKILLS CURRICULUM FOR INTERMEDIATELEVEL PROJECT CLASSSteven Zemke, Gonzaga University Steven Zemke is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Gonzaga University. He teaches design classes at the sophomore, junior, and capstone level. His research pursuits are in the pedagogy of design. Steven received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a dissertation on pedagogy from the University of Idaho in 2005. Prior to teaching, Steven was a design engineer and engineering manager for 25 years.Diane Zemke, Gonzaga University Diane Zemke is a Doctoral Student in the Leadership Studies Program at Gonzaga University. Her interests include pedagogy, paradigms
development course, asenior capstone design course sequence, and a graduate level course in product development. Inall cases, the students started the task of setting functional requirements and target specificationsfor the product after following a structured methodology to identify the customer needs. In thispaper, the process followed, an assessment of the results obtained and suggestions for futureimprovement are discussed presenting examples taken from different projects carried out bystudents.IntroductionAt the present time many undergraduate engineering programs in the US include one or moredesign courses aimed at better preparing students for the “real world” practice of the profession.In addition to the traditional Senior Design Project or
students progress from basic data collection and reverse engineering projects throughmore open-ended, industry-sponsored capstone design experiences. The team ofmultidisciplinary faculty from Engineering and Communications who teach the sophomore levelcourses have observed the difficulty students have tackling the fundamental open-ended natureof true design problems and have subsequently revised the sequence. For the Fall of 2005 theSophomore Clinic sequence was revised to introduce Dym et al.’s converging-divergingframework for design by incorporating a series of three projects of increasing complexity withaccompany activities designed to reinforce the converging-diverging concepts. For the thirdproject in the series, roughly sixty students
AC 2007-2366: CAPSTONE DESIGN PROJECTS WITH INDUSTRY: USINGRUBRICS TO ASSESS STUDENT DESIGN REPORTSPatricia Brackin, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology M. PATRICIA BRACKIN is an Associate Professor of M.E. at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology where she teaches a variety of design courses, and graphics. Her BS and MS are from the University of Tennessee in Nuclear Engineering and her Ph.D. is from Georgia Institute of Technology in ME. She has also been an Associate Professor at Christian Brothers University. Her industrial experience includes Oak Ridge National Laboratories and Chicago Bridge and Iron. She is a registered PE.J. Darrell Gibson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
research interests are in mechanical design and engines. Page 12.132.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 “A Success Story: The SAE Baja Car as a Capstone Senior Design Project”AbstractThe Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) sponsors regional competitions which are intendedto simulate team-based engineering design projects. One such example is the SAE Bajacompetition (formerly known as the Mini-Baja competition), for which student teams mustdesign and build an off-road that can maneuver robustly through rough terrain. At manyuniversities
AC 2007-431: ORGANIZATION OF A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY CAPSTONEDESIGN PROJECT FOR THE SAE FORMULA HYBRID COMPETITIONDarris White, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityJ. E. McKisson, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityWilliam Barott , Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Page 12.1133.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Organization of a Multi-Disciplinary Capstone Design Project for the SAE Formula Hybrid CompetitionAbstractMany real-world projects require the application and knowledge of multiple disciplinesand most professional engineers are required to regularly interact with co-workers withvarious backgrounds. Since capstone senior design projects
research has been published in many journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Brown is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has served the University and the profession as Virginia Tech’s Associate Provost for Program Development and as Program Manager of the Graduate Research Fellowship Program at the National Science Foundation. Page 12.1348.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Teaching Capstone Design in a Service Learning SettingAbstractThis service-learning-focused capstone design project requires students to design and build one
AC 2007-71: FOSTERING CREATIVITY IN THE CAPSTONE ENGINEERINGDESIGN EXPERIENCEElvin Shields, Youngstown State University Dr. Elvin Shields is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research has been generously sponsored by a University Research Professorship during the 2005-2006 academic year at Youngstown State University. Since 1995, Dr. Shields has coached approximately 250 mechanical engineering students through nearly 90 capstone design projects ranging from collegiate competitions to industrial problems. Page 12.756.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007
Rehabilitation Engineering & Technology Program that isbased at USF. This program is a unique program that integrates services to individuals withdisabilities with education, research and development. Seven field engineers and six techniciansdeployed throughout the state identify barriers to accessibility for individuals with disabilitiesand refer projects that do not have commercial solutions to the Capstone students. Theseprojects range from devices for personal hygiene, wheelchair mobility, driving adaptations torecreation and sports equipment. The program helps people with disabilities becomeindependent and have a better quality of life. These projects are ideal projects for mechanicalengineering students and several students have proposed their
AC 2007-2375: SUCCESS STRATEGIES FOR CAPSTONE DESIGN COURSESWITH LARGE CLASSES, DIVERSE PROJECT TYPES, SMALL TO LARGESTUDENT TEAMS, AND VARIED FACULTY INTERESTS AND APPROACHESJanis Terpenny, Virginia Tech Janis Terpenny is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education with affiliated positions in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial & Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. She is co-Director of the NSF multi-university Center for e-Design. Her research interests focus on methods and representation schemes to support early design stages of engineered products and systems. She is currently a member of ASEE, ASME, IIE, and Alpha Pi Mu. She is the Design Economics area
AC 2007-1582: FROM CAPSTONE COURSES TO CORNERSTONE PROJECTS:TRANSFERRING EXPERIENCES FROM DESIGN ENGINEERING FINAL YEARSTUDENTS TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTSMartin Grimheden, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Page 12.768.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 From Capstone Courses to Cornerstone Projects: Transferring Experiences from Design Engineering Final Year Students to First Year StudentsAbstractAt KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, large capstone courses havebeen the base of higher engineering programs in product development during the last 20 years.The capstone courses has since the
AC Powered Backpack ProjectAbstractThe human powered backpack1 was developed by four senior mechanical engineering majors atRice University. The backpack was targeted for students in rural third world countries whereelectrical power is rare or non-existent at home. The concept was to have local power foreducational devices available at the student’s home to augment classroom instruction.This project required collecting data from schools in different third world locations to establishthe need. The project was done in the students’ capstone design course and in conjunction withthe Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development5 (SEED) Foundation. The SEEDprogram provides support to schools in many of the countries where Schlumberger Ltd
advisor to tackle aMechanical Engineering design project. Engineering communication, such as reports and oralpresentations are covered. The course emphasizes a practical, hands-on experience, andintegrates analytical and design skills acquired in the companion ME courses. The courseobjectives are (1) design problem solving, creative thinking, project planning and teamworkthrough a challenging design and build project; (2) to provide experience in fundamentalengineering reporting and communication including project plans, design reviews, and projectreports. To address the transition of the three unit, one quarter design course into a six unit, threequarter Capstone Design course, an Academic Coordinator with over twenty-five years ofengineering
multiple functions in Understanding of PD costs and economy creating a new product (e.g. marketing, finance, industrial design, engineering, production). Ability to work out project plan and schedules, manage resources, manage risks, complete a Ability to coordinate multiple, interdisciplinary project successfully, and communicate and tasks in order to achieve a common objective. document effectively. Reinforcement of specific knowledge from other courses through practice and reflection in an action-oriented setting
integration, optimization and customization of CAx tools, with a second focus in the direct machining of CAD topology. Page 12.1141.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 PACE Global Vehicle CollaborationIntroductionCapstone design teams have become an integral part of undergraduate engineering education.Through these programs, students have the opportunity to apply what they have learned in theclassroom to actual design projects. Capstone classes provide distinct benefits to students whoparticipate in them. Students are able to put to use their newly acquired “text-book” designexperience in
stage. In the course, these process stages and visual steps are used tostructure and facilitate a semester long, student-directed, teacher-facilitated design project inwhich students are asked to design an innovative, inventive, or inspirational idea. Students arefree to choose a project focus in their area of interest. Students in the Digital Media program tendto choose topics such as: character, product, and game design, and architectural, interior, andenvironmental visualization. Self motivation, individuation, and actualization are pedagogicaldrivers that dramatically improve the students’ work ethic and academic performance.ScopeThe scope of this paper is intended to provide an outline of a design process and to describevisual thinking
AC 2007-266: USING INDUSTRIAL ADVISORY BOARDS TO ASSESS CAPSTONEDESIGN COURSESStacy Wilson, Western Kentucky UniversityMark Cambron, Western Kentucky University Page 12.1551.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Using Industrial Advisory Boards to Assess Capstone Design CoursesAbstractThe electrical engineering program at Western Kentucky University (WKU) was created in 2001with a focus on project-based education. Faculty have developed a series of experiencesthroughout the curriculum to support this mission which culminates in a year long designsequence. In this sequence, students must plan, design, and
oriented) themes for graduation projects andinducing students to industry, new approaches of industry-academy cooperation and apractical engineering design education have been created. This paper will explain anddiscuss this newly established engineering design education model, results from the capstonedesign education, and its effects on design education.2. Capstone Design EducationThe level of domestic design technologies reaches only about 50%-70% of the top level ofthe world. When a new design technology is introduced, 5~20% of overall sales must beincreased. 1 The domestic industry is especially lacking in system design technology (46.9%)and materials technology (28.8%). 1 Also, at least 2-3 years of field training and experienceneeded for
theireffectiveness and how the feedback of the assessment is fed back to the studentsto keep them in the assessment loop. These assessments satisfied a-k programoutcomes, benefited the students and provided valuable information to improvethe program. The engineering program had a successful ABET visit in 2005.IntroductionCriterion 4 of ABET 2000 requires that students participate in a major designexperience prior to graduation. Project based senior capstone courses satisfy thiscriterion very well. These senior design projects also have the added advantage ofbeing a great venue to demonstrate the ABET Engineering criterion 3 (a-k)program outcomes.The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and implementation ofthe assessments tools that satisfy
engineering background. Studio 6: Explores technical innovation and how design mediates the impact of new technologies on society and culture. This studio places emphasis on entrepreneurship and the business aspects of bringing a new idea to market. This studio is taught in collaboration with faculty from Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management. Studio 7: This is an engineering capstone design course that immerses students in a real world multidisciplinary design experience in the O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory. The design projects are sponsored by either industry, non-profit, or entrepreneurial interests. The projects are very challenging. Three example
instructors in theireffort to effectively teach this concept.The goal of the educational tool, component functional templates, is to not only aid classroominstructors in presenting the concept of functional modeling to students in a timely manner, butwill also aid the students through modern visual and interactive learning techniques that promoteproper form and assisted development. Ultimately, the templates will only be a first step, muchlike training wheels, in the process of learning how to functional model and will be an invaluabletool for the novice user with more in-depth engineering design problems to tackle.2.0 BackgroundThe educational foundation on which this project is based is the active learning process, whilethe primary method of
online discussionbetween team members, and teams were required to use a common electronic submission formatfor these deliverables.Figure 1. A mindmap for a treadle pump designThe paper begins with background on the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering DesignMethodology and Application capstone design course and its relationship to the proposed mini-project. Next, we describe our mini-project and identify how the mindmapping software gave thestudents an overall view of the design process. A comparison of first and fourth year studentdesign thinking as reflected in mindmaps will also be examined by contrasting the capstonedesign mini-project pilot against a first year design course mindmapping pilot project.References1. Buzan, T, B., The Mind
the governing equations (Fig. 4), and to simultaneously solve multiple analysis problems for integrated design projects. Page 12.390.7 6 REVISION Figure 4 Interactive mouse-picking of spur gear geometry factor (J) directly from a graph in the AGMA tooth strength analysis module and nonlinear solution of an eccentric buckling problem in the column buckling analysis modulec. Flexibility: To solve more than one type of mechanics problem using the same tool, to solve mechanics problems in
, structured approach is a great benefit to the development of complexsystems, both for large aerospace contractors and student projects. Systems engineeringdisciplines help provide the order necessary to the design and production processes. Common tothe aerospace industry, systems engineering processes are often discussed in engineeringcurriculum, but opportunities to participate in these processes are rare. Capstone engineeringcourses, such as the FalconLAUNCH courses, are perhaps the best way to provide a meaningfulexperience in these important disciplines.One of the important systems engineering disciplines is configuration control and managingchanges during the design and manufacturing processes. An example of this is the engineeringchange
toinstitute international collaboration projects that prepare undergraduate students for engineeringwork in the twenty-first century.Participating in an international collaboration project is a daunting task for a school that hasnever worked globally before, and launching or hosting such a project likely seems almostimpossible because of the numerous obstacles. In 2005-2006, GM/PACE (Partners for theAdvancement of Collaborative Engineering Education) sponsored the first international vehiclecollaboration project, a senior capstone project that demonstrated how global-scale projectseffectively prepare students for future exposure to large-scale collaboration projects in industry.The most important results of this pioneering project were the lessons
difficult but transporting the beans between processeswhile minimizing the overall size of the product was difficult. This technical challenge became afocused class project in the advanced product design class. Similarly the students discoveredthat containing the odor generated during roasting the beans was very difficult. The strategiesthey used did not function well. This technical challenge became senior research topic in thechemistry department’s capstone class. In addition, improving the control system was identifiedas a difficult challenge and a team of electrical engineering students undertook the design andmanufacture of a circuit board to control the roasting, grinding and brewing processes. On thebusiness side, the original team could not
teaching loads required by grading the many writing assignments. Moreover,the students’ critical reading skills are enhanced by the process. Assessment data verifies the positive contributionsof CPR to the course.Student teams are encouraged to submit their proposal for review by external funding organizations such as theNational Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)8 for funding consideration. Those teams that aresuccessful in attracting funding can use this external validation and funding as the basis for their project during thesenior year courses.ECE460 & 461 – Engineering Design I & II – 10 credits – distributed over 25 weeks of senior yearThe sequence is concluded by the “senior project” courses, in essence a capstone