Extended Abstract: Co-Creating Engineering Capstone Curriculum

This paper presents the redesign of a bioengineering capstone curriculum through the principles of liberatory pedagogy and service design, emphasizing student agency, transversal dialogue, and real-world engagement. Traditional capstone structures can constrain research depth and community collaboration, leading to designs disconnected from user needs. In response, we implemented a two-semester structure, with an engineering communication course preceding the design capstone. This shift prioritizes iterative dialogue, user engagement, and problem-posing education to foster more meaningful and context-driven solutions. A key component of this redesign is a collection of engaging videos on service design methodology, incorporating multiple perspectives and interactive assessments to deepen students' critical awareness of engineering's societal impact. This revised curriculum fosters student agency and ethical awareness through multimodal communicative activities, equipping future engineers to develop meaningful, real-world solutions.