2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Capstone design projects in Engineering and Computer Science programs are widely recognized as project-based learning experiences that integrate and develop students’ technical, professional, and collaborative skills, including soft skills. However, creating and sustaining successful capstone programs can prove challenging for students, faculty, industry partners, and capstone administrators. Students must be engaged consistently, reliably and responsibly, managing teamwork and deadlines, and balancing innovation with feasibility. Faculty must monitor project scope, provide equitable assessment, and manage heavy mentoring loads, while administrators face the ongoing task of sourcing authentic projects and maintaining long-term partnerships with industry sponsors. These challenges are amplified in multidisciplinary contexts; for example, when combining biomedical engineering with software engineering capstone domains. This paper presents a case study of a unique interdisciplinary capstone initiative that integrates students and faculty from Biomedical Engineering (BME), Information Computer Science (ICS), and the School of Medicine. The capstone initiative aims to address unmet clinical needs through collaborative, team-based medical device innovation projects. Guided by clinical mentors and faculty advisors, students from each discipline contributed complementary expertise and knowledge in hardware, software, and healthcare. In particular, the BME and ICS teams performed their capstone projects under their respective courses but worked together to define the scope of the problem, identify the requirements and constraints of the required hardware and software, propose solutions, create the product to satisfy the requirements, and test the product given FDA regulations and standards. In addition, the teams also explored market analyses and commercialization through performing customer interviews, business model canvas development, and competing in undergraduate business competitions. Given the differences across design processes (e.g. Agile Design versus BioDesign Processes), the study assessed the ability of student teams in different schools to be able to collaborate and perform teamwork across capstone programs, develop project-related outputs, and potential commercial solutions to unmet clinical needs. Under an IRB-exempt observational study, student surveys, interviews, and outputs revealed that students found that the interdisciplinary experience enhanced their ability to collaborate on team tasks, think critically and creatively, and distribute workload based on individual strengths. Furthermore, students noted that the interdisciplinary projects also enhanced their ability in several ABET-related student outcomes, such as applying design principles to produce solutions, communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences, function effectively on a team, and develop appropriate experimentation to draw conclusions. In reflecting on this Capstone process, there were several observations made and lessons learned. For example, we observed the need to possibly add a prerequisite course, prior to Capstone, on unmet clinical needs evaluation and problem definition, as this topic is a challenging and involved process in healthcare innovation. We plan to explore and implement this improvement suggestion. For future work, we intend to continue soliciting and supporting such interdisciplinary capstone projects, leading to a repeatable and sustainable curriculum for multidisciplinary capstone design programs.