Structuring Senior Design Capstone to Develop Competencies

Senior Design Capstone is a required component of many undergraduate engineering programs. The School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma has incorporated industry sponsored design projects, with Experiential Learning as the model, to develop technical and meta-competencies through the Senior Design Practicum Program. The Mechanical Engineering Capstone program has been developed to provide a learning environment, where students in teams work closely with an industry sponsor and a faculty advisor. The student teams work as a consulting group to produce useful results on an open-ended project to the sponsors’ satisfaction within the constraints of time and budget. Three major program elements, are (1) Student teams to learn and perform the tasks to achieve the desired goals of the project (2) Sponsor to define the problem, guide and accept or reject the results, and (3) Faculty to advise, coordinate, and evaluate. The Capstone program has targeted the energy industry, with a focus on oil and gas, which has a very strong presence in the region. The program, working closely with industry partners as mentors, prepares students for the energy industry. The student outcome and program are evaluated with extensive participation from industry. The program was implemented during 2002–2003. Over the last 10-years the program been able to sustain and grow. The plan that was used to sustain the program relied on developing a learning community of students, faculty and industry to support development of student competencies.