Integration of Engineering Capstone within a Makerspace Environment

A multi-stage consultative process has been developed within the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University for integration within the college’s maker space as a means of promoting technology acceleration and entrepreneurship among capstone projects. The developed process exposes students to advanced resources within the maker space environment by enhancing the capstone experience. This process has broadened student perspectives of capstone projects beyond a purely academic requirement to one that fosters innovation and possibly entrepreneurial opportunities. The developed model utilizes the interdisciplinary environment of a maker space to enhance project quality through an iterative design process, validation, and continuous testing, while introducing students to campus resources for entrepreneurship. As a work-in-progress, this paper will convey the process adopted to identify and guide capstone teams through the engineering design process, discusses preliminary results during the spring academic semester to increase capstone use of the maker space, outcomes to accelerate technology, and planned next steps.