Collection

2002 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Charles McIntyre

, and civil engineering). During theSpring Semester of 1998, a single overall departmental capstone course was created. The intent wasto provide a true “capstone” experience, where students in each degree program could combine theirskills to achieve the successful completion of a project. The primary objective of the capstoneexperience is to combine all aspects of the planning, design, and construction phases of a project intomeaningful education experience which mimics “real-world” design and construction practices.Students are required to use all of the knowledge and skills that they have acquired throughout theireducational experience to develop the documentation required for actual project construction (designdrawings, cost estimates

Collection

2002 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Marlee A. Walton; T. Al Austin

, and thereview and modification of several courses and assignments.The new curriculum consists of a series of twelve integrated courses beginning in the freshmanyear and ending in the senior year. Some of these courses cover topics that were included inprevious civil engineering (CE) curricula, such as: ß Civil Engineering Projects ß Engineering Problems with Computational Laboratory ß Graphics for Civil Engineering ß Civil Engineering Capstone DesignHowever, the new curriculum places a strong emphasis on the following professional practiceskills: ß Leadership Skills ß Team Processes in CE Practice ß Interpersonal Skills ß Communication Skills ß Project Management ß Agreements and Contracts ß Continuous Quality

Collection

2002 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Joseph C. Musto; Vincent C. Prantil

only limited opportunity to consider radically different design alternatives and exercise engineering creativity. In addition, design problem descriptions are often limited to very specific performance specifications, and larger "systems-level" issues are generally not addressed. • Systems-Level Design Experiences: These experiences are generally not integrated into courses, but are offered as "stand-alone" design projects. While most "Capstone" design experiences would fall under this classification, such experiences may also be used as introductory experiences for freshmen students. In such experiences, students employ a formal design process, and generally take a project from a

Collection

2002 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Swaminathan Balachandran

projects prepare thestudents to undertake capstone design project of significant scope and also do well in their jobafter graduation. The excellent laboratories, dedicated faculty, and outstanding graduates havebeen recognized by the people in the region and the program has received much publicity due toits very high ranking in the review published in the US News and World Report last year. The author established the IE laboratories and was responsible for the first ABET(Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accreditation of the program in 1987. Hehas taught most of the courses in the IE curriculum. During the past few years he used theBlackboard Course Info system to enable students to submit their work electronically

Collection

2002 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Paul Ross; Gisela Kutzbach

, requiring 24-credit hours of work to complete the program.Besides work in general technical communication, editing, and oral presentations,elective courses include web design, teams, electronic publishing and user manuals.Other courses outside technical communication are selected from approved course incommunication, computer science, math/statistics, and management/business/economics.Students may also work in all phases of the production of Wisconsin Engineer, theaward-winning college engineering magazine; and, as a capstone project, TCC studentscomplete a practical internship which requires substantial “real” technicalcommunication work “on-the-job.”About half the undergraduate students taking the TCC are first and foremost engineerswho want to