Academic and Industrial Perspectives on Capstone Course Content and the Accompanying Metrics

Published literature and accreditation activities all support the use of senior design courses and Capstone classes to integrate the knowledge provided over the course of the engineering curriculum. At the same time industry practitioners are expressing concerns regarding the skills newly graduated engineers possess, and regarding their ability to participate successfully in complex engineering design projects. In an effort to address these concerns, significant pedagogical research has been undertaken to improve the senior design experience. Although noticeable advancements have been observed in soft skills and course structure, research suggests these efforts may not be addressing the root cause of the practitioners´ concerns. A five year study finds that the efforts placed on how to teach engineering design courses have not addressed the more causal factor of what to teach. This research covers the current state of academic efforts regarding the Capstone classes, industry practitioners´ views of what should be learned, and observations of students in multiple sessions of a senior design course. A lack of specificity and metrics regarding academic outcomes of senior design courses, and a divergence in learning constructs are observed. This paper presents the results obtained from academic literature, practitioner interviews, and student observations