Haslam, M. J., & Beck, M. A. (2019, April), Bridging the Gap: Teamwork and Leadership in Engineering Capstone Courses  Paper presented at 2019 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting, California State University, Los Angeles , California. 10.18260/1-2--31818

\bibitem{asee_peer_31818}
  Haslam, M. J., \& Beck, M. A. (2019, April), \emph{Bridging the Gap: Teamwork and Leadership in Engineering Capstone Courses}
  Paper presented at 2019 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting, California State University, Los Angeles , California.
  10.18260/1-2--31818

Matthew J Haslam and Mary Angela Beck.  "Bridging the Gap: Teamwork and Leadership in Engineering Capstone Courses".  2019 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting, California State University, Los Angeles , California, 2019, April.  ASEE Conferences, 2019.  https://peer.asee.org/31818 Internet.  12 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_31818}
  Matthew J Haslam and Mary Angela Beck.
  "Bridging the Gap: Teamwork and Leadership in Engineering Capstone Courses".
  \emph{2019 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting, California State University, Los Angeles , California, 2019, April}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2019.
  https://peer.asee.org/31818 Internet.  12 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_31818
author = "Matthew J Haslam and Mary Angela Beck"
title = "Bridging the Gap: Teamwork and Leadership in Engineering Capstone Courses"
booktitle = "2019 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting"
year = "2019"
month = "April"
address = "California State University, Los Angeles , California"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/31818}
number = {10.18260/1-2--31818}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This paper describes research into how well senior students are prepared to work collaboratively in capstone design courses and to evaluate initial efforts to provide needed instruction on teamwork and leadership.  Senior capstone courses in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering (AE/ME) taught at _____________ University are two-semester sequences consisting of a Preliminary Design course and a Detail Design course in either aircraft, spacecraft, robotics, propulsion, or energy engineering design. Students enrolled in these capstone courses form teams of 5 – 14 students to create a design, usually in response to a Request for Proposal or a Requirements document; these teams then analyze, manufacture, and test their design. At the end of each semester, each team, under the direction of the design team lead (DTL), is required to give formal, public briefings to a panel of industry experts as well as to the general campus. At these briefings, the team members and DTL defend both their technical work on their design and their collaborative work as a team.

The first objective of this paper is to report the results of a semester-long study to determine whether senior students were prepared to work collaboratively in large teams over extended periods of time, to identify any gaps in preparation, and to pinpoint the sources of such gaps. To this end, the study’s methodology included documenting the team projects in all required AE and ME courses and interviewing team members and DTLs in capstone courses. 

The research revealed a clear gap between what was required from teams working on projects in pre-capstone courses versus capstone courses. Because typical pre-capstone projects involve 3 – 4 students working together for only a few weeks’ duration, students reported being ill-prepared to work on a two-semester project involving 5 – 14 team members. Students also reported that they do not receive sufficient instruction on working collaboratively in any pre-capstone engineering course, and the DTLs interviewed felt they were unprepared to successfully discharge their required duties. They experienced difficulties making assignments, motivating team members, and ensuring that all team members do quality work.

The second objective of this paper is to report the initial efforts to bridge these gaps by providing capstone students with needed instruction on teamwork and leadership. This instruction includes the following:

• explaining the attitudes and behaviors team members need to develop, 
• providing examples of process management tools that teams can adapt for their purposes,
• conducting out-of-class workshops for DTLs, 
• having all team members do research on effective teamwork that is shared with their team.

Preliminary evaluations as to the success of these instructional methods will be discussed and recommendations made.

AU  - Matthew J Haslam
AU  - Mary Angela Beck
CY  - California State University, Los Angeles , California
DA  - 2019/04/04
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Bridging the Gap: Teamwork and Leadership in Engineering Capstone Courses
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/31818
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--31818
ER  -