A Description Of An Integrated Capstone Project Team With Electrical, Mechanical And Computer Engineering Technology Students

The capstone Senior Design course is arguably the most relevant and essential engineering course that can be offered to the engineering technology student. The Capstone course, unlike any other engineering technology course, provides pedagogical coverage of most if not all of the ‘a through k’ ABET student criteria. Often the Capstone Design course requires that teams of students in a single academic discipline work together to produce and an engineering analysis and design of a product or project. A more “real-world” approach to the Capstone Design course has been introduced at Northeastern University’s School of Engineering Technology and has been proven successful, according to student and industrial advisor/judges assessments. The NU SET Capstone course is conducted by interdisciplinary teams of mechanical, electrical and computer engineering technology students (with an occasional integration of a team of business students), all working together as a team to complete a project. This paper will discuss the structure of this course, the successes that must be encouraged and the pit falls that must be avoided if this unique integration of engineering technology students is to be implemented in an ET curriculum. Background and Introduction Northeastern University is completing its third year in implementing a change from the Quarter to the Semester academic plan. The decision to change from a Quarter system to a Semester plan was driven, in a strong way, by the cooperative education division of the University who responded to their cooperative education employers who had requested that the students spend more time-at least six months-in a full time, engineering work environment. The School of Engineering Technology took full advantage of this academic change to add more technical electives, and more laboratory sessions for some courses as well as to revamp the course content of many other of its existing courses. Among the courses that were revamped was the Introduction to Product Design and Design Laboratory courses. One of the major changes was to eliminate these two courses, one of which was offered only to mechanical engineering technology seniors. These courses were replaced with two courses that are offered to all seniors and that provided more content to all of the P ge 1.38.2 graduating students. This led to the integration of the Capstone Senior Design Project course for all of the engineering technology students in the Engineering Technology Program. Thus the senior computer, electrical and mechanical engineering students end their academic careers by teaming to conduct an engineering analysis, design, prototype fabrication, test and reporting of a “product” or engineered system. On occasion, several of the groups will also team with business (senior) students who are responsible for producing a Business Plan resulting from their objective examination of the business viability of the Capstone “project/product”. Ultimately the results of these capstone projects provide evidence to the students of their mastery of their individual disciplines as well as their ability to work in dynamic groups composed of seemingly diverse engineering individuals. From a pedagogical stand point however, Northeastern University’s model of an integrated Capstone Senior Design Project provides an almost perfect implementation of ABET’s “a through k, General Criteria for Students and Graduates” as summarized in Table 1. This paper describes how the Integrated Capstone courses effectively accomplish these criteria. The Course Format and Structure Before detailing how Northeastern University’s Integrated Capstone Projects effectively accomplishes the ABET “a through k” criteria, a summary of the course format and structure is warranted. The integrated Capstone course contains two sub-course components the Introduction to Capstone and the actual Capstone course itself. These are offered as 2 and 4 Table. 1. ABET's GENERAL CRITERIA No.1: Students and Graduates a. an appropriate mastery of the knowledge, tech., skills and modern tools of their disciplines, b. an ability to apply current knowledge and adapt to emerging appl.s of math., science, engineering and technology, c. an ability to conduct, analyze and interpret experiments and apply experimental results to improve processes, d. an ability to apply creativity in the design of systems, components or processes appropriate to program objectives, e. an ability to function effectively on teams, f. an ability to identify, analyze and solve technical problems, g. an ability to communicate effectively, h. a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelong learning, i. an ability to understand professional, ethical and social responsibilities, j. a respect for diversity and a knowledge of contemporary professional, societal and global issues, k. a commitment to quality, timeliness, and continuous improvement.