The 2015 Capstone Design Survey: Observations From the Front Lines

Capstone design courses offer engineering students a culminating design experience on an applied engineering project, but the structure, logistics, and implementation of capstone courses varies widely. The 2015 Capstone Design Survey, conducted in spring 2015, continued the decennial census of capstone design courses to catalog current practices, identify emerging trends, and provide historical comparison. The survey reprised many of the questions from its 1994 and 2005 predecessors, augmented with additional questions based on other capstone-related surveys, design education conference topics, and open-ended responses. The survey was completed by 522 respondents representing 256 institutions across the U.S., including a handful of programs in other countries. This paper focuses specifically on the qualitative responses from the 2015 Capstone Design Survey, including capstone instructors\u27 first-hand experiences and implementation practices. These qualitative data serve as a candid window into capstone design practices through the experiences of those who coordinate it, raising issues and highlighting current practices in engineering capstone design education to guide further development in the field

Preliminary Results from a Study Investigating the Transition from Capstone Design to Industry

This study investigates engineering students’ transitions from academic to professional environments by examining the role capstone design courses play in preparing graduates for the workplace. To better understand how capstone design experiences contribute to graduates’ professional preparation, we are collecting data from participants from four different institutions with project-based capstone courses as they begin post-graduation positions in a variety of engineering workplaces. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, our study is designed to collect insights from participants in their first 12 months on the job. Currently we are collecting and analyzing data from the first of two planned cohorts of participants. Preliminary results for the participants in the first cohort point towards interesting trends regarding participants’ frequency of activities and perception of their preparedness. Professional skills such as team meetings were listed most frequently as activities engaged in by participants, and while there were particular areas such as budgeting where participants felt less prepared, overall their perception of preparedness indicates that capstone design courses and the larger engineering curriculum they are housed within are preparing students for professional careers

New Engineers’ First Three Months: A Study of the Transition from Capstone Design Courses to Workplaces

In preparing engineering students for the workplace, capstone classes provide unique opportunities for students to develop their professional identities and learn critical skills such as engineering design, teamwork, and self-directed learning (Lutz & Paretti). While existing research explores what and how students learn within these courses, we know much less about how capstone courses affect students’ transitions into the workplace. To address this gap, we are following 62 new graduates from four institutions during the participants’ first 12 weeks of work. Participants were drawn from three mechanical engineering programs and one engineering science program. Women were intentionally oversampled in the study, with 29 participants (47%) identifying as female. Weekly surveys were used to collect quantitative data on what types of workplace activities participants engaged in (e.g., team meetings, project budgeting, CAD modeling, engineering calculations) and qualitative data on what challenges they experience in their early work experience. In this paper, we present a descriptive analysis of the data to identify patterns across participants. Preliminary analysis of the quantitative data suggests that the most common activities for our participants were team meetings and project planning (mentioned by \u3e70% of participants) compared to formal presentations and project budgeting (mentioned by The results are intended to inform both capstone faculty and industry to identify areas of strength and improvement. Our recommendations target current practices in capstone education including course design and structure as well as industry onboarding practices

Modeling of the potential traffic management practices at the Williamsburg Mill River Greenway construction site

Roadway construction is an inevitable phenomenon that often causes stress for planners and motorists alike. There are several techniques to choose from for managing these work zones. The appropriate method is determined on a case-by-case basis, using a traffic analysis of existing site conditions to predict future construction phase conditions. A proposed multi-use pathway, known as the Greenway, connecting the towns of Williamsburg and Haydenville in Massachusetts will necessitate construction beginning in approximately eight years. This report details the existing conditions at this site as well as my data collection methodology for the traffic counts that informed these existing conditions. I input this data into two different traffic analysis programs: QuickZone (version 2.0) and Synchro (version 8) to provide an understanding of conditions before and during the predicted construction phase. I chose QuickZone to model traffic control practices, and Synchro to calculate the Level of Service. I detail the process of formatting my traffic count data before entering the information into these two programs, and then show their corresponding outputs. Based on the results of these two analyses, I recommend using a detour route to avoid the work zone entirely, as well as actuated signals immediately before and after the work zone to facilitate two-way one-lane travel. Additionally, traffic congestion will be reduced if a majority of the work is done on the weekends, or during late night or early morning hours. In considering this recommendation, it is also important to account for the additional wear and tear on the detour route and the extended construction schedule from limiting work to the weekends. Because the start date is several years out, there is also the potential for traffic patterns to vary substantially over this time span

Extending the 2015 Capstone Design Survey: Data From Australia and New Zealand

Capstone design courses are common in engineering design programs, but they vary substantially across institution and department. The goal of the decennial capstone design survey initiative has been to capture data from capstone design courses every ten years to identify current practices and changes over time. The 1994, 2005, and 2015 surveys have focused almost exclusively on capstone programs within the United States. This paper documents an initial extension of the 2015 survey to Australia and New Zealand to identify how capstone courses are implemented outside the United States and what strategies can be shared across countries. As in their United States counterpart, the 2015 Australia and New Zealand surveys included quantitative, categorical, and open-ended questions on capstone course information, pedagogy, evaluation, faculty, students, projects and teams, expenses and funding, sponsors, and respondent experience and opinion. This paper presents highlights of the resulting data by country, drawing comparisons where possible across countries: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Overall, the essence of capstone design courses in the three countries is quite similar; there are variations in implementation details, but these are often greater across programs or institutions than they are across nations. Collecting data about capstone design practices in different nations is an important step toward the larger goals of understanding and improving capstone design education globally