A Real-World Design Project in a One Semester Civil Engineering Capstone Design Course

All engineering programs have a senior capstone project requirement with the intent that the students demonstrate that they are prepared to work as a staff design engineer upon graduation. Hundreds of papers have been published on engineering capstone projects, dozens specifically on civil engineering capstone projects, and very few on ‘existing’ real world civil engineering capstone design projects. The lack of papers on real world civil engineering design projects could be attributed to difficulties with finding a real world project that works well in a capstone course environment, i.e., a project that begins at the start of a semester or can wait until then, is a size that could be completed in one semester, is guaranteed to move at a pace that can be completed by the end of the semester, contains multiple civil discipline design tasks, has a consulting engineer willing to invest non-billable or personal time in the course, has an engineer/engineering firm willing to seal the final design, and has a project owners willing to allow the use of their project. Omit one aspect then the project will not meet the capstone course’s needs. Without a doubt these issues make finding a real world civil engineering capstone project for a successful course experience difficult to achieve. This paper presents three successfully utilized ‘existing’ real-world, civil engineering capstone course projects and discusses capstone project sources that provide a real world design experience that meets the previously listed constraints. This pedagogy also provides the unique opportunity for the students to compare their design against a practicing professional engineer’s design.