(497) A CAPSTONE COURSE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY INDUSTRY

摘要

It is very common to include a senior capstone course in undergraduate STEM degrees. In these courses, students are typically given a major project to work on in an effort to demonstrate their mastery of the entire range of skills they have been taught during the preceding years. Projects may or may not be based on actual industry problems, and students may or may not work on teams. However, the projects are normally well-specified and well-structured to fit into a set of guidelines appropriate for the course. Unfortunately, as soon as these students take on a fulltime job, they will quickly realize that most projects do not work this way. The authors have developed a course, in consultation with industry representatives, that better prepares students for employment. The projects are vaguely defined, teams are made up of students from multiple degree programs, teams are international with representation from 4 campuses in three different countries, and teams are responsible for retiring existing systems and deploying the new system. Further, students experience several realistic “curve balls” during the year-long project. These include changing team members, changing due dates or requirements, and even changing sponsor representatives. When the course was first developed and offered in 2015, the intent was to treat the students as working professionals by giving them minimal guidance and expecting significant independent learning regarding both the project’s subject domain and the process of working on a project of significant size. This resulted in some, but not complete, success. Since that time, the authors have refactored the course to target what might be expected of a new, first-year employee by providing guidance in critical areas, but still expecting significant independent work. The intent of the course has not changed, but it has been tailored to a different student base. This paper discusses the details and outcomes of the course with particular emphasis on the areas where additional guidance has proven to be necessary.