2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

How We Teach: Capstone Design

Presented at Chemical Engineering Division (ChED) Technical Session 4: Junior & Senior Year Curriculum

Capstone design was the topic of the 2022 survey by AIChE’s Education Division’s Curriculum Survey Committee. Sixty responses have been received so far and preliminary results are reported here. Data collection will resume after the AIChE Annual Meeting. Institutions are more likely to have a two- or three-course capstone design series than a single capstone course (68% to 27%) with a mean of 5.4 credit hours. More institutions have design projects throughout the curriculum (40%) than have design courses throughout the program (20%). The course or courses in the capstone design are primarily offered only once a year (78%) with a slight edge to the spring semester/winter quarter (50%) over the fall semester/quarter (42%). Most institutions (78%) include instruction in software or programming as part of the course(s). The culminating design project is most often a theoretical design (68%) as opposed to one based on experiments (3%) or resulting in a prototype (7%), and most institutions do not use the AIChE Design Competition problems (70%). Professional skills are mainly lightly covered with the exception of professional communication being covered in depth at 58% of institutions. At most institutions, capstone design is used to assess the extent of ABET outcome achievement for all seven outcomes except #6 (develop and conduct appropriate experimentation…).

Students typically complete only one culminating major design (67%) in a team of 4.0 (mean) students. The mean of unique projects completed by the cohort is 8.6. Students receive formal feedback on their progress weekly at 50% of the institutions and every other week at 23% of institutions. The mode for weekly student time spent on projects is 6 – 10 hours per week, 62% of institutions.

The mean size of a faculty team teaching capstone design is 2.8 faculty. Fifty-eight percent of the instructors have at least three years of industrial experience, and instructors are split evenly between teaching-track and tenure-track. At least one capstone design instructor is a licensed professional engineer at 43% of the responding institutions. The faculty collaborate with industry at 63% of responding institutions.

The conference paper and presentation will include many other details such as how teams are created, deliverables, software used, project topics, and the role of industrial collaborators. Student contact hours both inside and outside the classroom will be described. Comparisons will be made to earlier surveys.

Authors

Dr. Laura P. Ford http://orcid.org/0009-0002-3585-1879 The University of Tulsa [biography]

LAURA P. FORD is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Tulsa. She teaches engineering science thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, mass transfer/separations, and chemical engineering senior labs. She is a co-advisor for TU's Engineers Without Borders - USA chapter and is a co-PI for the Refining Technologies Joint Industry Project.
Dr. Jennifer Cole http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7104-2986 Northwestern University [biography]

Jennifer Cole is the Assistant Chair in Chemical and Biological Engineering in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University and the Associate Director of the Northwestern Center for Engineering Education Research. Dr. Cole’s primary teaching is in capstone and freshman design, and her research interest are in engineering design education.
Dr. Kevin D. Dahm Rowan University [biography]

Kevin Dahm is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rowan University. He earned his BS from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (92) and his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (98). He has published two books, "Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics" with Donald Visco, and "Interpreting Diffuse Reflectance and Transmittance" with father Donald Dahm.
Dr. Bruce K. Vaughen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6424-5136 American Institute of Chemical Engineers [biography]

Bruce K. Vaughen, Ph.D., P.E., CCPSC, (brucv@aiche.org) is the Lead Process Safety Subject Matter Expert at the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), a Technology Alliance in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He has more than two decades of industrial experience, has presented at and co-chaired sessions at CCPS conferences, has been principle writer or co-author of four books, is a Professional Engineer (Chemical Engineering), a CCPS Certified Process Safety Professional (CCPSC), an AIChE Fellow, and a CCPS Fellow.
Dr. Marnie V. Jamieson http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-9065-5347 University of Alberta, Canada [biography]

Marnie V. Jamieson, Ph.D., M.Sc., P.Eng. Dr. Marnie Jamieson is a teaching professor at the University of Alberta. She is currently the William and Elizabeth Magee Chair in Chemical Engineering Design and leads the process design and first year design teaching teams. Her current research focuses on sustainable engineering design and leadership, the engineering graduate attributes and their intersection with sustainability, competency based assessment, learning culture, engineering identity and continuous course and program improvement.
Dr. Luke Landherr http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9805-7336 Northeastern University [biography]

Dr. Lucas Landherr is a teaching professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, conducting research in comics and engineering education.
Dr. David L. Silverstein, P.E. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3221-7565 University of Kentucky [biography]

David L. Silverstein is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He is also the Director of the College of Engineering's Extended Campus Programs in Paducah, Kentucky, where he has taught since 1999. His PhD and MS studies in ChE
Dr. Troy J. Vogel University of Notre Dame [biography]

Troy Vogel is the Assistant Chair, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He is the faculty advisor ND's student chapter of AIC
Dr. Christy Wheeler West http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0172-7212 University of South Alabama [biography]

Christy Wheeler West is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of South Alabama, where she also serves as Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. She holds a Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. from the University of Alabama.
Dr. Stephen W. Thiel http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6797-7225 University of Cincinnati [biography]

Stephen Thiel is a Professor-Educator in the Chemical Engineering program at the University of Cincinnati (UC). He received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and his MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His past research has focused on membrane science, adsorption, and ion exchange. He currently serves as the Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Program Director at UC and teaches the capstone process design sequence. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio.

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