Technical Design Reviews in Capstone

Technical design reviews are used throughout industry to assess, question, improve and approve design. The review process is a frank exploration of the design efficacy. This paper reports on the use of the industrial style technical design review or its equivalent in the engineering capstone. The technical design review can be used as an informative lecture topic or applied to the capstone project. Based on survey data, this paper reports on how, when and to what extent technical design reviews are used by respondents. Sixty-seven respondents from academia provided input. The data reported in this paper represent a qualitative exploration of the use of technical design reviews (TDRs) directed at determining what characteristics are valued for TDRs in engineering capstone program. The results are limited by the qualitative design of the research. A more structured quantitative approach would require higher demands on participants time and effort which was beyond the scope of this initiative.