INTEGRATING PROJECT MANAGEMENT, PRODUCT DESIGN WITH INDUSTRY SPONSORED PROJECTS PROVIDE STIMULATING SENIOR CAPSTONE EXPERIENCES

Abstract

Many students are uncomfortable with realworld engineering problems where needs and requirementsmust be concretely defined and the selection of designsolutions is not black and white. This paper presents a twosemester, multi-disciplinary senior capstone project forstudents in three Engineering and Technology Departmentprograms (electrical engineering, electrical and computerengineering technology, and engineering technology) thatbrings together the tools of project management, the creativeproduct development process with industry sponsoredprojects. The projects are fully integrated with the RapidCenter with its dual goals of economic development andenhanced learning. The stage/gate development process isused with six formal reviews covering the development of theproposal through to the fabrication and testing of the projectgoal. Over the past four years 35 projects have beenundertaken with students getting an exciting authentic lifeexperience and introducing them to the real world ofengineering.Index Terms ⎯ capstone projects, industry, product design,project management.