Asee peer logo

Community-engagement-based capstone projects: Lessons learned related to engineering economic analysis

Download Paper |

Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Engineering Economy Division Technical Session 1

Page Count

19

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41838

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41838

Download Count

358

Paper Authors

biography

Raymond Smith East Carolina University

visit author page

Raymond L. Smith III is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at East Carolina University. Dr. Smith's research focuses on developing and applying operations research methods to provide model-based, implementable solutions for complex systems. His work encompasses simulation modeling and optimization methodologies with applications to healthcare, public health, supply chain, information systems, logistics, sustainability, and other industrial and service systems. Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from North Carolina State University.

visit author page

biography

James Etheridge

visit author page

Randall Etheridge is currently an associate professor in the Department of Engineering and the Center for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering at East Carolina University (ECU). Prior to joining ECU, he served as an agricultural engineer with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. He is the coordinator for the environmental engineering concentration at ECU. Randall's research focuses on helping communities in eastern North Carolina address water quantity and quality issues.

visit author page

biography

Ricky Castles East Carolina University

visit author page

Currently serving as Electrical Engineering Concentration coordinator at East Carolina University. I am the PI on a multi-institutional track 3 S-STEM grant designed to support low-income students in eastern NC at East Carolina University and 3 partnering community colleges. My disciplinary scholarship focuses on sensor networks for improvement of health. My educational scholarship focuses on curricular innovations and support to improve student outcomes.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

This paper examines a portfolio of community-engaged capstone projects with teams of interdisciplinary undergraduate engineering students and how they applied engineering economics methods to make decisions during the engineering design process. The paper attempts to distill from faculty observations and review of final team reports and student presentations a set of lessons learned applicable to improving engineering economics education and preparing students to be successful in community-engaged projects. The portfolio of capstone projects addressed an engineering design need to improve the control of excess water in a watershed encompassing a national wildlife refuge within a rural, coastal community increasingly subject to flooding attributed to several factors, including sea-level rise. The capstone teams were assigned individual projects to address how to improve water control and flood management within specific regions of the watershed. Each project required capital investment with ongoing operational and maintenance requirements. This paper examines the challenges project teams experienced specifically related to their use of engineering economics methods in making decisions during the engineering design process and formulates a series of lessons learned that may guide future instructors in planning community-engaged projects with their students.

Smith, R., & Etheridge, J., & Castles, R. (2022, August), Community-engagement-based capstone projects: Lessons learned related to engineering economic analysis Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41838

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2022 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015