A Three-Semester Capstone Design Sequence: Advantages and Disadvantages

Engineering departments have many possibilities when it comes to the organization of the capstone design experience.This experience is generally packaged in one or two semesters in the Senior year of engineering students.Curricula include varying levels of content related to the design process and tools that facilitate the process, in addition to the actual performance of the design project.In addition, the outcomes of the design process vary considerably, depending on engineering discipline and department preference, from detailed designs with no physical realization to required functional prototypes and design evaluation.Certainly, there is no approach that fits all disciplines and all departments.The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a threesemester capstone design course sequence.We believe this approach provides students with a more complete and thorough capstone design experience allowing for fabrication and testing of functional prototypes.While it is especially advantageous for Mechanical Engineering departments where a physical prototype is often the ultimate goal, it can also be advantageous for other disciplines, especially where production of a functional prototype is desired.Primary advantages include 1) students learning the design process and related tools and building teamwork skills without the pressure of their capstone project, 2) more time for students to focus on their capstone projects and to fabricate/test a prototype, and 3) reinforcement of the design process steps and tools, as they are applied to the capstone project.Primary disadvantages are 1) that it moves the design process course content back into the busy Junior year, and 2) it creates more work for students using conceptual projects in which they may not be strongly invested.