A Multi Faceted Design Process For Multi Disciplinary Capstone Design Projects

Engineers are called upon to design a wide variety of devices and systems, typically in a multidisciplinary team environment. We try to incorporate this design environment into the senior capstone design experience in mechanical engineering at NMSU. In this two-semester sequence, each design team is led by a student manager, often a graduate student from another engineering department. Since these student managers often have little more design experience than the undergraduate students, it is useful to present a fairly structured framework for the design teams to operate within. This multi-faceted design procedure helps walk the students through the maze of issues that must be considered in engineering design. This design process is modeled after the methods that we have used in delivering customer design and development projects under contract for actual engineering applications. The approach fosters a stronger team-oriented working relationship with the client or company sponsoring the project, enables us to train our students in one product development process, and helps the team members learn what to expect in working together.