Senior Design or "Capstone" projects are one of the most important aspects of undergraduate activity in engineering disciplines as they represent a culminating major design experience with multiple realistic constraints. Most students enroll in capstone courses during their senior year, and participate in team-based design of a system or component. Capstone activities include requirements gathering, specification development, technical design and troubleshooting, oral presentations and written reports. At the end of each Fall and Spring semester, ______ ______’s ______ School of Engineering hosts "Senior Design Day" to showcase the projects and student accomplishments. Some projects are fully completed while others are halfway through the capstone sequence. The event, hosted at a local convention center, includes presentations from teams from four disciplines, with both engineering and engineering technology majors. The event is attended by students (both in the capstone class and those who have not yet taken it), faculty, sponsoring companies, industry advisory board members, and members of the public. This is an evolving event that has changed significantly in the last four years, and now draws over 300 attendees. Multiple break out rooms host ongoing formal team presentations concurrently with poster presentations and corporate information booths. The day wraps up with a networking event for the students and companies in parallel with an industrial advisory board meeting. This paper will present the evolution of the event, logistics and lessons learned, and how similar events could be hosted. The paper will also include comments and feedback the event has received form students, faculty, staff, and sponsors.
Dr. Austin Talley is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas State University, Dr. Austin Talley worked as a manufacturing quality engineer for a test and measurement company, National Instruments, in Austin, TX. Dr. Austin Talley is a licensed by state of Texas as a Professional Engineer. Both of Dr. Austin Talley’s graduate degrees, a doctorate and masters in Mechanical Engineering, manufacturing and design area, are from the University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, Dr. Austin Talley holds an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University in Mechanical Engineering. His research is in engineering design theory and engineering education. He has published over 30 papers in engineering education journals and conference proceedings. He has worked to implement multiple National Science Foundation (NSF) grants focused on engineering education. He has been an instructor in more than ten week long summer K-12 teach Professional Development Institutes (PDI). He has received multiple teaching awards. He has developed design based curriculum for multiple K-12 teach PDIs and student summer camps.
C. Richard Compeau Jr. is a Professor of Practice in the Ingram School of Engineering, and the Electrical Engineering Program Coordinator. He is interested in teaching and curriculum development. His work is typically project-specific for the EE Capston
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