Interdisciplinary engineering capstone course sequence designed for career preparation

James Gordon Walker; Gina Howe; Melani Plett

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference
Location: Vancouver
Publication Date: May 12, 2022
Start Date: May 12, 2022
End Date: May 14, 2022
Conference Session: Equity and Ethics in Engineering-II
Tagged Topics: Diversity and Conference Submission
Page Count: 20
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44745
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44745
Download Count: 151

Paper Authors

biography

James Gordon Walker Seattle Pacific University, College of Arts and Sciences, Engineering Department

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James serves as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Seattle Pacific University, where he teaches the Senior Engineering Design capstone classes, among others. This follows a 33-year career in engineering and senior engineering management at the Boeing Company. While at Boeing, James worked in a variety of aircraft design roles, and management functions with extensive customer involvement, including long-term international assignments in Tokyo and Paris. These roles have provided a keen appreciation for the cross-disciplinary aspects of an engineering career in today’s global environment, including such things as business acumen, cultural sensitivity, communications, ethics, logistics, manufacturing and technology infrastructure. James’ doctoral research involved understanding the unique challenges of First-Generation Students and designing systems and pedagogy to remove unintentional barriers.

James resides in Seattle with his wife and their daughters. James is a Certified Flight Instructor, and in his free time trains pilots through the Boeing Employee Flying Association at Renton Municipal Airport.

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Gina Howe P.E. Seattle Pacific University

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BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Seattle Pacific University in 2003, and currently pursuing a MS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University. She also worked in the industry for 15 years and is a registered professional engineer.

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Melani Plett Seattle Pacific University

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Prof. Melani Plett is a Professor in Electrical Engineering and the Director of Engineering and Computer Science at Seattle Pacific University. She has over twenty years of experience in teaching a variety of engineering undergraduate students (freshman through senior) and has participated in several engineering education research projects, with a focus on how faculty can best facilitate student learning.

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Abstract

This abstract is intended to be fleshed out into a full paper for the conference. Our engineering senior design year-long capstone course sequence is designed to mimic a high technology incubator and involve students working in interdisciplinary, diverse teams to implement a design project while developing professional skills. This paper will describe the course sequence including the design process, teaming guidance, project ideation, professional skills development; and grading/assessment methods.

Modeled after practices in industry, this course sequence includes design sprints, project management, risk assessments and mitigation, formal design reviews by the course instructors, and presentations to industry professionals. Each cross-functional team includes a mix of electrical, computer, and mechanical engineers. All teams consist of students of different ethnicities, genders, and ages. Teams are formed with diversity in mind, but also based on each student’s expressed project-type interest. The instructors then lead the students through problem identification, project ideation, and development into an appropriately scaled design that is both challenging and doable. Much of the course is focused on team building and processes, conflict management, and both team and individual reflection on team performance. The instructors emphasize the value of diversity, such as the need for each student’s voice to be sought, heard, and respected. The professional skills developed in the course include project management, both formal and informal presentations to varied audiences, formal documentation, budgeting, business cases, and dealing with ethical issues around their specific project. The students are assessed using performance evaluation methods from industry as to whether they meet expectations, exceed expectations, or fall short of expectations. Quarterly meetings are held with each team and with each student individually around team performance and lessons learned. The students are also invited to formally evaluate themselves around the ABET objectives. The meetings with individual students may involve an improvement plan where there is a perceived area of weakness. The student's final grade is a combination of these performance metrics on both their team assignments and individual assignments. The comprehensive nature of this course sequence allows for equity of contribution and grading in that students have multiple ways to shine depending on their strengths. Some excel at project management, some at leading, some at theoretical details, some at fabrication and implementation, etc.

We assess the course sequence itself in several ways: student feedback, our industrial advisory board’s feedback after interacting with the teams multiple times, faculty observation, and observations of student projects and presentations by STEM faculty at our university’s in-house research and design conference. While it is a struggle to keep the workload manageable, employers and alumni frequently remark that this sequence prepares the students well for their future careers.

Citation
Format

Walker, J. G., & Howe, G., & Plett, M. (2022, May), Interdisciplinary engineering capstone course sequence designed for career preparation Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference, Vancouver. 10.18260/1-2--44745

TY - CPAPER
AB - This abstract is intended to be fleshed out into a full paper for the conference. Our engineering senior design year-long capstone course sequence is designed to mimic a high technology incubator and involve students working in interdisciplinary, diverse teams to implement a design project while developing professional skills. This paper will describe the course sequence including the design process, teaming guidance, project ideation, professional skills development; and grading/assessment methods.

Modeled after practices in industry, this course sequence includes design sprints, project management, risk assessments and mitigation, formal design reviews by the course instructors, and presentations to industry professionals. Each cross-functional team includes a mix of electrical, computer, and mechanical engineers. All teams consist of students of different ethnicities, genders, and ages. Teams are formed with diversity in mind, but also based on each student’s expressed project-type interest. The instructors then lead the students through problem identification, project ideation, and development into an appropriately scaled design that is both challenging and doable. Much of the course is focused on team building and processes, conflict management, and both team and individual reflection on team performance. The instructors emphasize the value of diversity, such as the need for each student’s voice to be sought, heard, and respected. The professional skills developed in the course include project management, both formal and informal presentations to varied audiences, formal documentation, budgeting, business cases, and dealing with ethical issues around their specific project. The students are assessed using performance evaluation methods from industry as to whether they meet expectations, exceed expectations, or fall short of expectations. Quarterly meetings are held with each team and with each student individually around team performance and lessons learned. The students are also invited to formally evaluate themselves around the ABET objectives. The meetings with individual students may involve an improvement plan where there is a perceived area of weakness. The student&#39;s final grade is a combination of these performance metrics on both their team assignments and individual assignments. The comprehensive nature of this course sequence allows for equity of contribution and grading in that students have multiple ways to shine depending on their strengths. Some excel at project management, some at leading, some at theoretical details, some at fabrication and implementation, etc.

We assess the course sequence itself in several ways: student feedback, our industrial advisory board’s feedback after interacting with the teams multiple times, faculty observation, and observations of student projects and presentations by STEM faculty at our university’s in-house research and design conference. While it is a struggle to keep the workload manageable, employers and alumni frequently remark that this sequence prepares the students well for their future careers.

AU - James Gordon Walker
AU - Gina Howe P.E.
AU - Melani Plett
CY - Vancouver
DA - 2022/05/12
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Interdisciplinary engineering capstone course sequence designed for career preparation
UR - https://peer.asee.org/44745
DO - 10.18260/1-2--44745
ER -