Senior Mechanical Systems Design Capstone Projects: Experiences and Assessment

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

6-15-2019

Publication Title

Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers

Conference Name

ASEE 126th Annual Conference & Exposition

Abstract

Organizing and completing an undergraduate senior design capstone project course that lasts only ten to eleven weeks (one quarter term) is challenging for both the instructor and for the students. In this paper, the experiences and assessment of few senior capstone design projects in the mechanical systems area is discussed in detail. The present author is the coordinator of this capstone course. One of the senior lab technicians helps the students outside the class hours with refining their design drawings, procurement of material, fabrication and testing phases. He helps the author instructor with the assessment of students’ work by providing constant feedback about the progress the student groups make at various intervals of time. In this paper, sample capstone design projects and their outcomes will be presented. In particular, this paper gives an overview of the developed devices specifically by focusing on the design and development aspects of the prototypes. Rubrics for grading were provided at the beginning of the term and their progress monitored on a weekly basis. The student involvement includes understanding the strengths and weaknesses of their prerequisites knowledge needed to successfully complete the chosen project. Since ours is a co-op university, students alternate between academic and work terms. They have working knowledge and good time management skills. Industry interaction in the capstone courses is highly desirable but not always easy to secure due to various practical reasons that the companies have, one of which is short duration of the class (10 to 11 weeks).

Comments

Paper ID #24850

Rights Statement

© American Society for Engineering Education, 2019

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