Engineering Capstone Senior Design Project as a Story-Building Platfom

Hoo Kim; Paul R. Leiffer; Laura Kathryn Neal; Kathleen Mays; Joon Wan Kim

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Design in Multidisciplinary Learning Environment
Tagged Division: Multidisciplinary Engineering
Page Count: 23
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37053
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37053
Download Count: 477

Paper Authors

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Hoo Kim P.E. LeTourneau University

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Hoo Kim, Ph.D., P.E., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology at LeTourneau University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from POSTECH, Pohang, South Korea, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. His professional interests include teaching in the area of electromagnetics and RF, integration of faith and engineering, and entrepreneurship in engineering.

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Paul R. Leiffer P.E. LeTourneau University

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Paul R. Leiffer, Ph.D., P.E., is a professor in the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology and Chairman of the Engineering Department at LeTourneau University, where he has taught since 1979. He is the co-developer of LeTourneau’s program in Biomedical Engineering. He received his B.S.E.E. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Drexel University. His professional interests include biomedical signal processing, engineering design, and engineering ethics.

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Laura Kathryn Neal LeTourneau University

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Laura Kathryn Neal is a professor in the School of Business at LeTourneau University and the Department Chair for Healthcare programs, where she has served since 2017. She received her B.S. in Business as well as her MBA from Southern Wesleyan University. She received her Doctorate in Management with a concentration in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix. She also received a Master of Public Health from Independence University. Her professional interest includes biomedical research, epidemiology, population health, leadership, and ethics.

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Kathleen Mays LeTourneau University

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Kathleen Mays is Associate Dean and Professor in the School of Business at LeTourneau University. She earned her M.B.A. in Management from Troy University and her D.B.A. in Management from Anderson University. She has enjoyed teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, in the U.S and in Europe. Her research interests include business management pedagogy, bridging the theory application gap, and international business. At LeTourneau University, her focus is on entrepreneurial education.

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Joon Wan Kim LeTourneau University

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Joon W. Kim is a professor and Dept. Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at LeTourneau University. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from DaeGu University, South Korea and his Ph. D in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He teaches many upper level Electrical and Computer Engineering classes and interested in senior design projects sponsored by industries.

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Abstract

This paper introduces the engineering capstone senior design project as a story- building platform. While capstone design typically prepares students for professional careers it can also be seen and structured as a holistic story-building experience. Students from various backgrounds build their own stories as they participate in a multidisciplinary project. A typical story involves actors/characters, setting, and plot. Students gravitate to a story that involves curiosity, adventure, challenge, risk-taking, suspense, and reward. A particular example of story-building is the two-year “Badger” senior design project, which began with a “reconnaissance mission” to Silicon Valley the spring before the project started. The Silicon Valley “Mission Trip”, known as the “Caleb and Joshua Project” (named after a specific incident in Israel’s history) was initiated to connect potential sponsor companies with real-world problems to our senior design teams. Smaller businesses, particularly startups, often present dynamic situations where there is a greater chance for a project to entail a broader scope and a holistic platform. While most industry projects involve collaboration with a local company or projects from a partner company, out of the visit in search of an original project from Silicon Valley came an industry request for a goose-chasing robot for use on golf courses, where Canadian geese are an expensive nuisance. Many stories include introduction, challenge or crisis to be overcome, and resolution. In the case of capstone design the challenges were (1) to develop a design that met the problem specifications and satisfied a need within a potential market, (2) to connect the individual components within the larger story, (3) to unify a team from multiple disciplines, as well as (4) to complete the project in the midst of a pandemic. The “Badger” project involved students from Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Marketing. The goal (resolution) was for students to learn design and collaboration in an industry model and yet a non-threatening environment. An unexpected outcome was the enjoyment provided by the project. Similar wide-scale projects were undertaken by a team designing a portable surgical table and a team developing a programmable pacifier. With faculty agreement a small school primarily driven by engineering (a Polytechnic University) can leverage its multi-disciplinary senior design projects to embrace such diverse areas as liberal arts and theology. Student feedback showed that exposure to widely different perspectives during their project participation created additional stresses but enhanced their own story as a career- building component and created lasting memories as well.

Citation
Format

Kim, H., & Leiffer, P. R., & Neal, L. K., & Mays, K., & Kim, J. W. (2021, July), Engineering Capstone Senior Design Project as a Story-Building Platfom Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37053

TY - CPAPER
AB - This paper introduces the engineering capstone senior design project as a story- building platform. While capstone design typically prepares students for professional careers it can also be seen and structured as a holistic story-building experience. Students from various backgrounds build their own stories as they participate in a multidisciplinary project. A typical story involves actors/characters, setting, and plot. Students gravitate to a story that involves curiosity, adventure, challenge, risk-taking, suspense, and reward. A particular example of story-building is the two-year “Badger” senior design project, which began with a “reconnaissance mission” to Silicon Valley the spring before the project started. The Silicon Valley “Mission Trip”, known as the “Caleb and Joshua Project” (named after a specific incident in Israel’s history) was initiated to connect potential sponsor companies with real-world problems to our senior design teams. Smaller businesses, particularly startups, often present dynamic situations where there is a greater chance for a project to entail a broader scope and a holistic platform. While most industry projects involve collaboration with a local company or projects from a partner company, out of the visit in search of an original project from Silicon Valley came an industry request for a goose-chasing robot for use on golf courses, where Canadian geese are an expensive nuisance. Many stories include introduction, challenge or crisis to be overcome, and resolution. In the case of capstone design the challenges were (1) to develop a design that met the problem specifications and satisfied a need within a potential market, (2) to connect the individual components within the larger story, (3) to unify a team from multiple disciplines, as well as (4) to complete the project in the midst of a pandemic. The “Badger” project involved students from Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Marketing. The goal (resolution) was for students to learn design and collaboration in an industry model and yet a non-threatening environment. An unexpected outcome was the enjoyment provided by the project. Similar wide-scale projects were undertaken by a team designing a portable surgical table and a team developing a programmable pacifier. With faculty agreement a small school primarily driven by engineering (a Polytechnic University) can leverage its multi-disciplinary senior design projects to embrace such diverse areas as liberal arts and theology. Student feedback showed that exposure to widely different perspectives during their project participation created additional stresses but enhanced their own story as a career- building component and created lasting memories as well.
AU - Hoo Kim P.E.
AU - Paul R. Leiffer P.E.
AU - Laura Kathryn Neal
AU - Kathleen Mays
AU - Joon Wan Kim
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Engineering Capstone Senior Design Project as a Story-Building Platfom
UR - https://peer.asee.org/37053
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37053
ER -