Interdisciplinary Capstone Projects

Abstract

Abstract Interdisciplinary Capstone ProjectsIn this ABET accredited engineering program, students in their senior year complete aninterdisciplinary capstone project course that involves design, analysis, and development of aproduct, process/facility, or tooling. The course is also considered communications intensive dueto its reporting requirements. The engineering program houses five different specialties –biomedical, industrial, manufacturing, mechanical, and software allowing great flexibility in theareas of work. In the recent history, a variety of project types were employed in the courseincluding further development and refinement of yet-to-be-commercialized patented productsowned by inventors, student driven research and development projects, industry sponsoredprojects for various industries such as human resources, logistics, biomedical, pharmaceutical,and heavy manufacturing as well as in house research originated by the instructor. Developmentof open source 3D printers, electrocardiograms, edutainment robotics, composting machines, andrototillers can be given as recent project examples in addition to classical facility design andimprovement work.This paper will depict the structure of the course including the details of different project types,followed by the planning, execution, and control actions. The team structure including team sizeand the method of working on the same problem with two different teams, which arecollaborating at first during the problem definition/scope and data gathering stage but only to beseparated to work on the solution alone. On the contrary, student driven projects were by handledthe originator of the concept alone and limited number of patent applications or discussions andstart-ups were experienced. In addition, the paper will address the benefits of continuing projectsover multiple semesters, reporting and documentation requirements including oral and writtenprogress reports as well as final report and its supporting presentation, and peer reviews. Theissues arising during the execution of the projects including budgetary limitations and furtherimprovement on Intellectual Property (IP) and entrepreneurship aspects will also be covered inthis study.