Systems Engineering and Capstone Projects

Systems Engineering (SE) methods are increasingly being integrated into capstone design projects as a critical component of capstone design competitions, through mentoring during capstone project advising, and through capstone course syllabi development. In this paper, we describe an “engineering science” course developed specifically to teach selected SE topics and designed to primarily prepare third and fourth year undergraduate students for their engineering (ABET) capstone project. The course was developed using an inverted classroom format where students view short, topic-specific videos and read selected key topic papers and tutorials prior to class meetings. Class time is then used to work on topic specific problems in an engaging team based setting. This paper presents the motivation for the course, the course structure and syllabus, and recommendations based on how to improve the course based on student input and first time offering observations.