Lessons Learned In Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Classes

For all engineering students, senior capstone design course is a required course for completion of their bachelor degree. With more emphasis on the design contents in engineering curricula, the importance of capstone classes for students cannot be overemphasized. This paper described the author’s experiences in conducting capstone classes for the last three years in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Lamar University. The paper presented difficulties and problems encountered in completing these projects from the viewpoints of both instructor and students. Each project and the problems associated with it were discussed in details. The experiences and lessons learned from these projects are applicable to most capstone design projects and thus, the paper will be beneficial to other instructors teaching capstone design classes.