Innovative Student Research Projects

Senior or Capstone project courses are part of majority of the Engineering Technology Curriculum. This is partly because of the faculty’s desire to assess student’s ability to apply the knowledge acquired and, partly because of the mandate by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). A number of papers have been published on the topic of senior projects and the necessity for providing realistic engineering experience . Looking at these publications, a common theme emerges which calls for making these projects relevant to industry . This can be accomplished by greater industry involvement and redesigning the capstone course to meet the needs of industry. This paper discusses two frameworks under which this can be accomplished and presents two research projects that were completed as part of senior design project in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program at Old Dominion University.