Effectiveness of involving the industrial and business professions into mechanical engineering capstone course

Abstract

Capstone design, along with the last courses before graduation, is one of the major performance indicators of the student outcome in an undergraduate mechanical engineering program. Educational topics on the capstone course, such as the instruction content, course design, procedures, and timeline schedule, have been deliberated by engineering instructors in higher education. Meanwhile, more and more universities started to invite mentorship or advisement from industrial personnel to the capstone design classes as practical experience is also a significant factor in the engineering study. In this article, a senior design course for undergraduate mechanical engineering program is introduced. Collaboration and mentoring by industrial and business professions are offered in the course, though optional for students. As a result, the students in the same capstone course, though got the same lecture classes and follow the same design schedule, can be divided into three different groups: Group 1 worked in traditional design format, Group 2 received mentorship not only from the instructor but also from industrial professions, and Group 3 received help from a business profession. The course and project outcome of the three groups are evaluated by various assessment and results are demonstrated and discussed.