AC 2012-3439: ASSESSMENT OF PROJECT COMPLETION FOR CAP-STONE DESIGN PROJECTSMr. Stephen W. Laguette, University of California, Santa Barbara Stephen Laguette is currently a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the College of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and the Technology Management pro- gram, and is responsible for the undergraduate M.E. capstone design program. He received his B.S., M.S. in M.E. from the University of California, Los Angeles. His professional career has included executive research and development management positions with a number of medical device companies. He has been responsible for the creation of complex medical devices with more than 15
. Omobola Thomas graduated from Purdue University in 2011 with a bachelor’s of science degree in elec- trical engineering with highest distinction. She currently works as a Test Engineer for Cummins Filtration, Inc., and is also working towards her master’s degree in electrical engineering. Her Interest areas in elec- trical engineering include automatic control systems and digital signal processing. She enjoys watching movies, traveling, and reading. Page 25.74.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 A Multidisciplinary Capstone Senior Project: Interactive
AC 2012-4707: THE NEWCOMEN PUMPING ENGINE: A CAPSTONEDESIGN PROJECTDr. Matthew A. Carr, U.S. Naval Academy Matthe Carr is Permanent Military Professor of mechanical engineering and a nuclear submarine Officer.Michael V. CristianoProf. Patrick Caton, U.S. Naval Academy Page 25.1325.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 The Newcomen Pumping Engine: A Capstone Design ProjectabstractThe purpose of this article is to describe the undergraduate mechanical engineering capstonedesign project of building an operating and instrumented scale model Newcomen Engine.Thomas Newcomen built
Page 25.284.3serve as a web resource for capstone faculty to provide centralized access to effective tools andpractices developed by teachers and researchers across the country, beginning with tools tofacilitate the development of students' communication skills, as discussed below.Design of the Hub: Requirements and SpecificationsOverall GoalsThe CDHub is being designed to serve the needs of a variety of constituents, including • Professors and instructors of capstone design courses • Faculty advisers/coaches for student capstone design teams • Industrial and external sponsors/liaisons for capstone design projects • Students participating in capstone design projects/teams • Academic staff who support capstone design
. Page 25.20.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 A Case Study in Capstone Organization for Continuous Design/Build Projects: Building a Project Brain Trust, and the Experiences of Senior Engineering Students who Joined “Competition” Projects Already In-ProgressAbstractThe year-long Capstone Design course sequence at State University is a key element of both theMechanical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Technology programs. These twoprograms share a common Capstone course. Given proper pre-requisite coursework, students canenter the Capstone sequence either in the fall or spring, and project involvement
AC 2012-5470: TRACKING DESIGN KNOWLEDGE IN ENGINEERINGSTUDENT PROJECTS AROUND COURSE MILESTONESDr. Sharad Vimal Oberoi, Carnegie Mellon University Sharad Oberoi completed his Ph.D. from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 2011. He is currently affiliated with the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems at CMU. His research interests include language in design, computer-supported cooperative learning, collaboration in design, and design education.Prof. Susan Finger, National Science Foundation Susan Finger is currently a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation. She is on leave from Carnegie Mellon
engineering from Auburn University. He has authored several book chapters and articles on follower component of leadership and is active in research on the leadership processes. Page 25.610.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 Capstone Project Problem StatementsFormulating a project problem statement can be a challenge for the capstone student. A reviewof capstone related literature indicates similar-not identical-approach to design that includevarious concepts of what is a problem statement, their development, evaluation and assessment.The literature focus is
well as becoming a certified Professional Engineer while working for an electrical engineering consulting firm in Pennsylvania.Dan Bosse, Weldon Solutions Dan Bosse graduated from York College of Pennsylvania with a degree in mechanical engineering in the summer of 2011. He now works at Weldon Solutions in York, Penn., designing automation systems and precision grinders. The capstone design project was one of the highlights of his time at York College. Given the opportunity, he would gladly work on another robotics project.Berne S. Edwards, Graham Packaging Company Berne Edwards received his B.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering from York College of Pennsylvania in 2011 and works as a Project Management Engineer at
LearnedA “lessons learned” exploration of the capstone program at UNC Charlotte could constitute anentire publication. The main lessons learned over the 6 year life of the program will be addressedhere. Lessons described in the sections above will not be repeated.Student projects must not appear to be “make-work” or lack realistic expectations – Despitestudent inexperience in the workplace, they are extremely adept at identifying projects that seemto be unimportant to sponsoring organizations, or projects that do not require the delivery of realengineering content. All projects placed before students for selection or assignment should beformatted in the same way, require deliverables that are defined and achievable and offer thepossibility of
theses. He has several patents and published more than 100 research papers. Page 25.1072.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 Product Realization Experiences in Capstone Design CoursesAbstractProduct realization is the main objective of most engineering processes. While the realization concept ismostly limited to the physical build of a product, the root of any realization process starts at theconceptual level of the individual or engineering team. Considering that engineering capstone designcourses are usually centered on open- ended design projects, to provide
engineering from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1995. Page 25.88.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 A Pilot for Multidisciplinary Capstone Design incorporating a Systems Engineering FrameworkSynopsisIn this paper we discuss a pilot project to develop an approach to multidisciplinary capstonedesign that incorporates a systems engineering (SE) framework which can be a model for broadimplementation. It is a reflection of the growing demand for engineers educated to recognize theoverarching significance of systems engineering approaches for the
. Page 25.590.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 Evaluation of Design Work and the Achievement of Learning Outcomes in Senior Capstone CoursesAbstractThe two-semester Mechanical Engineering Capstone course at Brigham Young University(BYU) was created in 1990 to help students learn a structured design process and assist them indeveloping design skills for the practice of engineering. Course outcomes were establishedbased on stakeholder input and students receive classroom instruction as well as do projectdesign work on projects provided by industry sponsors. To date more than 575 design and buildprojects have been completed for more than 300 industry project sponsors
countries. Capstone design is a good startingplace for faculty collaboration and synchronization, because it reflects and assembles allthe features of the curricula in different educational systems across a large number ofcountries.The authors have many years of combined teaching experience in two differenteducational systems and have launched collaborative and synchronous teaching of acapstone design course in the United States and China since 2010. The same designtopics have been offered to student teams in the two collaborating schools. Based on thestudents’ learning experience and performance in the finished projects, the majordifferences in the two systems are significant. For example, American students putmore effort into creativity, team
other factors. Two additional criteria,Passion for Technology and Clearly Communicates, also rated as relevant and important. Fourcriteria, Inspires Collaboration and Leadership Project Management Skills and Experience, werelower rated.4. ME310 Student Profile ME310 is a capstone course that has been taught at Stanford University since 1967. Theyear-long course is a mechanical engineering master’s-level sequence in which student teamswork on complex engineering projects sponsored by industry partners. Student teams completethe design process from defining design requirements to constructing functional prototypes thatare ready for consumer testing and technical evaluation.8 Students come to the course having earned undergraduate
a three-person crew in protective suits.The students were extremely motivated from the visit and had additional questions about castingtechniques.Initial Laboratory EffortsSince the capstone project is student based, the team determined an initial schedule for theproject and created a Gantt chart (named for Henry Gantt) which included project milestones andalso a critical design review, a final presentation and a final report. The students quicklydesigned a “work-horse” blade using readily available 6061-T6 aluminum that was a flat plate ofthe same length as their first stage compressor blade. It had the same average chord length andthe average thickness of their first-stage compressor blade. This simplified geometry could bequickly
, Arizona. In 2007, we began accepting freshmen into ourMechanical Engineering (ME) program. In the 2010-2011 academic year, we offered for thefirst time the new ME capstone design courses with concentrations in either air-breathingpropulsion or robotics. This paper describes the propulsion preliminary design course; a secondpaper will focus on the follow-on propulsion detail design course.The first graduating class of ME majors included three students in the propulsion track. Themutual dependence of the new propulsion track and well-established aircraft preliminary designcourse under our Aerospace Engineering (AE) program made the integration of the MEpropulsion and AE aircraft projects an attractive proposition. This paper discusses this
Engineering Design in an Exam EnvironmentAbstractOne of the most difficult aspects of engineering is the effective teaching of engineering design.While it is paramount that every engineering student be exposed to engineering design, it can bedifficult to assess the design skills of individual students. Most design assessment is typicallyconducted at the project or team level, and many assessments of design effectiveness only usethe capstone experience. This is clearly inadequate. Instead, what is needed is an effectivemethod that can be used to partially assess the design capabilities of individual students in anexam setting.This article will discuss an approach to assessing design skills in the exam environment
seek to develop new design educators and provide ongoing supportfor current faculty. Such understanding could help support existing capstone design facultymembers’ growth in expertise, create relevant professional development resources, andencourage new faculty members/university departments to implement capstone design courses. Itcan also provide course coordinators with strategies for engaging project and industry advisorsand for positioning the role of practice-oriented courses across the curriculum.However, little if any work to date explores faculty motivation with respect to design education.To address this gap, this paper analyzes secondary interviews conducted with capstone designfaculty; the interviews focus specifically on teaching
cross-departmental collaboration. The hands-on robotic design project is introduced in the capstonecourses to teach interconnected STEM concepts. This type of project, which has proven veryeffective in engaging students, is used in many areas of technical courses as hands-on activitiesand demonstration and, in addition, lab work. Additionally, the focus of robotic project is onhardware/software interface, data communication, electrical circuits, and mechanisms whichreflect actual engineering activities in a company. These areas provide a tight integration ofmany STEM concepts and activities for capstone course. In general, the capstone course is aparent course that has inherited the knowledge of many feeder (pre-requisite) courses, and
their knowledge and skills for the enhancement of human welfare, and motivatesthem to strive for increasing the competence and prestige of engineering profession.4.6 Demonstrate knowledge of contemporary issues Knowledge of contemporary issues such as economical, environmental, social, and ethicalfactors are crucial in the design process of any engineering system. Engineering students prior tograduation must be able to identify these factors and make appropriate judgments in any projectthey undertake. The TGR platform in capstone senior design is ideal to educate the students inthis process. For instance, consider a project designed to assist a blind person navigate inside abuilding. Two primary challenges faced by a blind person are
team-based project. In particular, team-based designprojects (cornerstone, capstone, or discipline specific) are ideal candidates as they requireeffective teamwork to facilitate the development of an optimal design solution. The toolcomprises four areas where students can engage in learning from their team experience. Theseareas allow students to: • self-reflect and provide feedback on their teammates • review the feedback they have received • access tools and techniques to improve their understanding of team-effectiveness • engage in exercises to practice their team-effectiveness competenciesThis section outlines our proposed method of integrating this learning tool into a course and itsteam-based project. Figure 1 demonstrates
and graduating, respectively, undergraduate engineering students thusact as bookend design experiences. The Cornerstone curricula serve multifaceted purposesincluding providing students with what is likely their first open-ended design and long-termproblem-solving challenge as well as transitioning incoming traditional engineering studentsfrom secondary college preparatory coursework to engineering coursework at the post-secondarylevel, not to mention satisfying various curriculum content-related and pedagogical objectives.The Capstone activities provide students with an opportunity to apply their coursework fromtheir program of study and experiences through their college careers in a final project often in thefield and involving industry
Page 25.11.2computer-assisted and web-based grading rubrics have led to the development of online tools forthe assessment of student design work like those offered by the IDEALs project13.However, these systems still do not fully address the problems of real and perceived teacher biasin grading14, grade inflation15, and professor pleasing. For example, 51% of respondents in a2004 faculty survey on capstone design courses rated their perception of grading fairness as only“(3) fair - I seldom hear complaints” and none rated their perception as a “(5) all bias anddistortion have been eliminated”16. These types of concerns have led many students to prefer thatdesign projects be evaluated by external jurors because they “want the jury process to be
engineering in 1987 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gennert is interested in computer vision, image processing, scientific databases, and programming languages, with ongoing projects in biomedical image processing, robotics, and stereo and motion vision. He is author or co-author of more than 100 papers. He is a member of Sigma Xi, NDIA Robotics Division, and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council Robotics Cluster, and a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM.Dr. Taskin Padir, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Taskin Padir is an Assistant Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is also a faculty member in the Robotics Engineering program. He advised capstone
capstone design course. The freshman courseintroduces students to the process skills associated with engineering design. Emphasis is on teamwork, communications skills, and computer-aided analytical tools. Activities include prototypebuilding and testing with industrial collaboration. As students complete this course beforechoosing a major in the College of Engineering, the technical content is general and does notfocus on a particular engineering discipline. In contrast, the senior capstone design courserequires students to apply the tools acquired in both required courses and technical electiveswithin our department. By blending professional engineering topics and project activity, theexisting capstone design course dilutes both these components
) pedagogy, students also learn and apply engineeringdesign tools and methods to a two semester, real-world, problem-based, service learning project.This pedagogy continues in the capstone design experience (Engineering Design III through VI)where students are provided with important instruction concurrently with their capstone designexperience, in which they work in groups with one or more faculty advisors on a four semester,two-year project. In this four-semester sequence, students start by applying the engineeringdesign process as well as the design tools and methods learned during the sophomore designcourses to their new projects, but also are exposed to a variety of advanced design topics anddesign challenges that aid is helping students
noted above, BIM as a field of knowledge is often relied up in the field of sustainable design.(13) BIM tools and concepts produce significantly better information for use in sustainabledesign, and there is the benefit of compatible software that can further analyze the data providedfrom a BIM model. This field is the perfect piece of a multi-disciplinary capstone project, whichmay be the best and/or only time an undergraduate program can address the material.Project ManagementIn many ways you could argue that BIM is a preeminent project management tool. In addition tosupporting project management specialties such as estimating, scheduling, and producingquantity take offs which inform management decisions (all mentioned above), BIM is also
perspectives, (8) integrated assessment throughout, (9)polished products, and (10) multiple interpretations and outcomes.6 Therefore, the AccreditationBoard for Engineering and Technology in criterion 5, specifies the following requirements withregard to engineering capstone project experiences: "Students must be prepared for engineeringpractice through a curriculum culminating in a major design experience based on the knowledgeand skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporating appropriate engineering standardsand multiple realistic constraints.”7A 2005 survey of capstone design courses nationwide found that 98 percent of engineeringdepartments have some form of a capstone design course.8 However, reviewing the results of thesurvey indicates
. Page 25.990.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 On a Client-Centered, Sophomore Design Course SequenceAbstractOften engineering design instruction based on real-world, client-based projects is relegated to afinal year capstone course. Our engineering program, however, emphasizes these real-world,client-based design experiences, and places them throughout our six-course engineering designsequence. Our six-course design sequence begins with a two-course sophomore design sequencethat is meant to enable mastery through both directed and non-directed learning and explorationof the design process and design tools. At the sophomore level, we aim to provide students withthe foundational
, including the Integrated Design Engineering Assessment and Learning (IDEALS) project, which seeks to enhance learning and assessment in design. Davis has taught multidisciplinary de- sign that integrates engineering and business development skills. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.Dr. Steven W. Beyerlein, University of Idaho, Moscow Steven Beyerlein is professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Idaho, where he coordinates the capstone design program and regularly participates in ongoing program assessment activities. He re- ceived a Ph.D. in M.E. from Washington State University in 1987. His research interests include catalytic combustion systems, application of educational