Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kevin R. Anderson; Clifford M. Stover

, followed by preliminary design review (PDR), a criticaldesign review (CDR), design and testing of components and subsystems, fabrication ofworking prototypes, and validation of system requirements. In the study of Morgan et al.6,various project management tools are used during the process. Soft skills such as teamwork,presentation skills, writing skills, and ability to deal with ambiguity are emphasized throughoutthe capstone projects. The objective of the two semester capstone project experience outlinedin Morgan et al.6 is to better prepare the students for the real-world challenges theywill face after graduation.Other such success stories in pairing private industry with capstone design teams are found inthe work of Tobar et al.7 and Mertz8

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Jim Helbling; Angela Beck

collaboration, negotiation, mediation, communication, and other “soft” skills requiredof any successful design team. In this way, the instructors can model healthy and productiveteam behavior to their students who can then adopt these same behaviors in their own designteams. Rather than merely telling students how to engage in good team skills, teaching teams canactually model these very skills. As such, teaching teams help students to achieve ABETOutcome 3d.Aside from these benefits, forming and managing a teaching team can also pose challenges; twokey challenges experienced by the authors were managing student requests for assistance andfinding replacement team members.Managing Student Requests: Once students realize they have access to sources of

Collection

2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors