Progress report - The development of high performance capstone project teams and the selection process

Abstract

The development of high performance Capstone project teams and the team formation process has previously been reported1 but only provided information regarding initial experience and did not include year-end student project results. This paper is intended to provide a more complete report of the results and the continued evolution of the process and the design program. A successful Capstone Design program including companion design courses has been developed2,3 that has become an integral and important component of the Mechanical Engineering curriculum. A variety of challenging projects are created each year to appeal to student academic and career interests. Students work in teams with the assistance of a faculty advisor to tackle a significant mechanical engineering design project. The formation of student teams can be a challenging and time consuming process that is critical to the success of the design project and the course experience. Attention continues to be focused upon the formation of student teams and the selection process in the hopes of developing high performance student teams. Successful student teams should include enthusiastic, motivated and engaged students as they must address the project over the academic year of the Fall, Winter and Spring quarters. The student team should also include satisfactory skills, technical or academic expertise required for each project. As previously reported1, by including student preferences in the team formation process and careful assessment of student strengths and weaknesses, the development of a high performance Capstone project team may be more likely to occur. This paper will address the experiences and the continued evolution of project team formation and the student selection process. It has now evolved to include an online process that allows the student to identify individual preferred project selections. The process also includes the ability to capture individual student academic and career interests as well as the expertise that may be offered towards the project and team. Typical class size is between 68 and 110 senior ME students resulting in 14 to 22 projects and teams each year. The Capstone projects include Industry Partnered, Research Partnered, Student Competitions, and Independently created projects. The Capstone projects reflect the technical expertise of the department and faculty including solid mechanics, structures, materials, dynamics, systems and control, robotics, fluid mechanics, thermal sciences, computational science, and nanotechnology. Projects are created each year that vary in the type and the level of technical challenges to be addressed by the student teams. This selection and team formation process has created a positive environment for high performance teams to flourish. A summary of the first year of experience and the in-progress results for the second year will be presented. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.