2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Work in Progress paper presents an educational framework that connects undergraduate research with the Senior Design capstone sequence at XYZ University. The model links a summer research project to the two-semester, six-credit Senior Design course, where students work in multidisciplinary teams under faculty and industry mentorship to apply engineering design principles, develop and test prototypes, and communicate results through professional documentation and presentations.
The Senior Design program aims to prepare students to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics; apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs while considering public health, safety, welfare, and global, cultural, and economic factors; and recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments in a societal context.
The pilot began in a summer research project that developed an acoustic localization system for autonomous drones using a Teensy 4 microcontroller for high-speed data acquisition and MATLAB for signal processing and direction of arrival estimation. The following academic year, a new Senior Design team composed of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering majors extended this research into a complete prototype under the guidance of faculty mentors from both disciplines, following required milestones of proposal development, design reviews, midterm and final presentations, and weekly progress reporting.
The paper describes the structure, mentoring approach, and observed educational benefits, with plans to expand the model and evaluate its impact on multidisciplinary learning and ABET-aligned outcomes.