A Practice Based Senior Design Experience

This paper presents an overview of a practice-based capstone design experience. Information about past industrial sponsorship of course projects, course structure and requirements, professional practice integration, and assessment results is provided. A primary objective of the experience is to transition students from their classroom roles into their professional roles as practicing engineers. Details of how the course facilitates this transition are discussed. Finally, results of an alumni assessment survey are presented. The goal of the practice-based senior design experience at Baylor University is to produce engineering graduates who have the selfconfidence and practical knowledge necessary to become immediately productive in today’s project-oriented workplace. Interpretation of these assessment results supports the conclusion that this goal has been met.