Introducing Systems Engineering Concepts in a Senior Capstone Design Course

Senior capstone design projects can often expand in complexity to include systems of systems, particularly in projects involving embedded systems to control a larger system. Principles of Systems Engineering (SE) can be integrated into the capstone course to help students—who may not have been exposed previously—manage this increased complexity. This paper presents an evolving framework of essential SE fundamental elements, including the top-level processes of Requirements Analysis, Functional Analysis and Allocation, Design or Synthesis, and Analysis & Control. A case study of a mechatronic system (a robotic tin whistle player) was used in a two-semester Electrical and Computer Engineering capstone design course in which the students had no prior exposure to formal SE processes. The students still had to design, build and test their projects’ systems, so a balance had to be struck between teaching basic SE principles with its various reporting opportunities, and leaving enough time to do the hands-on engineering required to produce a prototype at the end of the year. The result is a capstone design course that exposes students to the language of SE so that they will be able to recognize its processes when encountered after graduation.