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Session 2566

Managing a Capstone Design Clinic—Strategies for Pedagogic and Financial Success

Dr. Charles Pezeshki School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164-2920 pezeshki@wsu.edu

Many ABET-certified programs in mechanical engineering have a team-oriented practicum involving projects generated by outside industrial sponsors that are supporters of the university. A smaller subset of these programs are financially successful, and generate enough income to expand the student experience with design. This paper will make the argument that generation of revenues with such programs are necessary to meet pedagogical goals.

In addition, a management strategy for generating money and meeting educational goals will be presented. Techniques for working with university development officials will also be discussed, as well as looking for new ways of cultivating an institution’s alumni base as a ground for project creation. The author’s own successful program, with consistent modest but sustainable revenues of $60,000-$80,000 will be discussed as a model for a low investment, high-return program for senior design.

1. Introduction

Many noteworthy books have been written in the past ten years regarding the emerging science of product development, such as 1 and 2. As ABET has increased emphasis on design in the curriculum, university faculties in all the engineering disciplines have been forced to move the status of design instruction from a neglected stepchild of engineering science to the most prominent place in the curriculum—at the minimum as one of the capstone classes taught in a course of study.

Yet the reality that the author has experienced is that engineering faculty as a whole are not well-versed in the general area of synthesis. Most were educated in analysis, using advanced tools of engineering science to achieve the Ph.D. degree. Further, once out of their graduate program and into a teaching/research position at a leading university, there is little incentive to cultivate an active design sense. On top of this, running a successful design class is a complex management exercise. Teaching design on the undergraduate senior level can be expensive, if part of the class goals includes manufacturing or realization of any final developed product.

Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education 2005 Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright  2005 American Society for Engineering Education

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Pezeshki, C. (2005, June), Managing A Capstone Design Clinic—Strategies For Pedagogic And Financial Success Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14152