2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A New Approach to Capstone Design through Multidisciplinary Collaboration at Florida Polytechnic University

Presented at Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) - Evolving Pedagogies in Capstone Design Education

As the complexity of engineering challenges continues to evolve, the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration has grown significantly. Capstone design serves as a culminating experience at the end of most engineering degree programs. Approaches to capstone design vary. Capstone projects can be industry-sponsored or internally funded, span one or two semesters, and involve single or multi-disciplinary teams. Florida Polytechnic University’s Capstone Design Program introduces a pioneering, university-wide approach to the teaching and practice of engineering design by bringing together students and faculty from multiple disciplines in a cohesive, collaborative environment. This program leverages design thinking to guide students through the design process while integrating discipline-specific knowledge that informs the specialized roles of individual students and the broader understanding of what is expected from their peers in industry. This paper describes the history and development of this capstone program, details the integration of multiple disciplines at the student and faculty levels, and presents program outcomes. We aim to offer insights valuable to others interested in implementing a multidisciplinary capstone design program into their curriculum.

Authors

Dr. Alexander R. Murphy http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8806-6378 Florida Polytechnic University [biography]

Dr. Alexander Murphy is currently an Assistant Professor at Florida Polytechnic University. Before this position, he held a Research Associate appointment at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). He was awarded an ASEE eFellows fellowship funded by NSF for the postdoctoral research position at UTD. He completed my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in July of 2021 at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. In Spring of 2018, he was awarded an NSF GRFP fellowship in STEM Education and Learning Research. Dr. Murphy's research areas include engineering design theory, design methodology, design cognition, design education and engineering education. His research involves human-subject studies with both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques including experiment design, rubric development, inter-rater analysis, and semi-structured and structured interviews. His current research is focused on exploring how system representation affects engineering designer behavior, how trained facilitation impacts the design process, and how experience affects students’ approaches to CAD modeling.
Dr. Elisabeth Kames http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5455-4100 Florida Polytechnic University [biography]

Elisabeth Kames is an Assistant Professor at Florida Polytechnic University. Her focus is on engineering design and manufacturing, with special focus on engineering education within the mechanical engineering department. Her research focuses the impact of motivation on performance and persistence in mechanical engineering, design cognition and neurocognition, and manufacturing training in design courses. Elisabeth is an active member of ASEE, ASME, Tau Beta Pi, and Order of the Engineer.
Jim Dewey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1459-5880 Florida Polytechnic University [biography]

Jim Dewey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Data Science and Business Analytics and Director of Economic Analysis at Florida Polytechnic University, where he is a founding faculty member. He has conducted applied research in collaboration with industry and government partners for over 25 years. He has taught a wide array of classes in economics and data science, including three years teaching and mentoring multidisciplinary teams in Capstone 1 and 2.
Dr. Karim Elish Florida Polytechnic University [biography]

Dr. Karim Elish is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Florida Polytechnic University. He obtained his PhD and MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech.

Dr. Elish received the Florida Poly ABLAZE Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2017-2018 for his excellence in teaching practices reflecting the highest standards in pedagogy; a record of outstanding teaching effectiveness inside and outside the classroom; the ability to inspire, promote, and sustain the intellectual development of students; course and program development; and for fostering critical thinking of students.

His research interests span various topics and applications, including software engineering and cybersecurity analytics (Google Scholar). Dr. Elish is a senior member of IEEE, ACM, Upsilon Pi Epsilon, and Phi Beta Delta.
Dr. ONUR TOKER Florida Polytechnic University [biography]

Onur Toker (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and Mathematics from Bogazici University, Istanbul, and the M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. He worked as a Graduate Researcher at Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and then at University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA. Before joining Florida Polytechnic University, he worked for the solid-state LiDAR company, Quanergy, (Sunnyvale, CA), and then for the Augmented Reality Company, DAQRI, (Sunnyvale, CA, and Pasadena, CA). After joining Florida Polytechnic University, he also worked for AVRA Medical Robotics (Orlando, FL). His research interests include FPGA-based hardware acceleration, mm-wave radars and communication systems, mm-wave software defined radios, cybersecurity, and attack resilience. He has published more than 100 technical articles and was the PI and co-PI for several funded projects.
Prof. Matt Robert Bohm http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-9598-633X Florida Polytechnic University [biography]

Matt Bohm is a Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Florida Polytechnic University, where he also serves as the Director of Industry Engagement and Capstone Projects. Since joining in 2016, he has developed the capstone program into a thriving multidisciplinary and industry-connected experience. His research focuses on engineering design, design repositories, and automatic concept generation, with an emphasis on improving design processes and innovation.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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