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Web-enabled System for Managing Student Applications for a Selective Industry-sponsored Multidisciplinary Capstone Design Program

Abstract

Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) is an institutionalized two-semester industry- sponsored multidisciplinary capstone design option for seniors in engineering, business, and packaging science at the University of Florida. Preparing for the launch of the IPPD program in the fall semester requires coordinating with dozens of project sponsors, faculty and staff from nine academic departments and students from more than 12 disciplines. Obtaining 25 suitable multidisciplinary industry projects each year is a time consuming activity. So too is the process of recruiting and selecting 150 students of the appropriate disciplines to complete these projects. Ideally, as projects are identified and committed, students with the right discipline background are approved and enrolled in the capstone program. If all goes as planned, there will enough students of the right disciplines to complete every project. This balance between project and student recruitment is a challenging systems issue—ignore either and risk program collapse. Further, after spending many hours recruiting a sponsored project, it is particularly disheartening to inform a sponsor that their project cannot be undertaken because too few students of the appropriate disciplines were available to complete the work.

From 1995 to 2006, students at the University of Florida applied directly to their academic departments through a paper application for admission into the Integrated Product and Process Design. Academic advisors verified the applicant qualifications against discipline-specific prerequisites, and faculty coordinators approved or rejected applicants. The paper-based process worked, but left many information gaps in the project and student recruitment process. To address these gaps, an information system was developed to streamline the capture, processing, and disposition of student applications. Today, students apply over the web, advisors and coordinators review the applications online, and accept or reject decisions are based upon needs published in the system by the program director. The system has tools for ranking the applicants, provides automatically generated e-mail notifications, and alerts reviewers when new applications are ready for processing. The director now has dynamic access to student applicant data and student numbers.

The intent of this paper is to share the structure and features of this student application system. Improved communications with the undergraduate advisors in the participating academic disciplines will be discussed along with other benefits.

Introduction

Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) is an institutionalized multidisciplinary capstone design option for seniors in engineering, business, and packaging science at the University of Florida1. Each year, approximately 150 students are accepted into the IPPD program. The participants work for two semesters in small multidisciplinary teams under the guidance of faculty coaches and industrial liaison engineers to design and build authentic industrial products for sponsoring companies. The purpose of the IPPD program is to provide an experiential

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Stanfill, R. K. (2008, June), Web Enabled System For Managing Student Applications For A Selective Industry Sponsored Multidisciplinary Capstone Design Program Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--4363