ASCE Vision 2025 and the Capstone Design Project

摘要

Students' performance and motivation in capstone design projects have a direct bearing on the quality of infrastructure built in the Commonwealth Caribbean and thus, on the quality of life of its peoples. On one hand, on the basis of the previously mentioned quality assessments and anecdotal evidence, it can be said that UWI's model of capstone design projects has served the civil engineering profession and the society in the Commonwealth Caribbean with a record of distinction. On the other hand, there is a need, and perhaps even a latent willingness—made evident in the results of the survey as discussed in the preceding section-for a reformation of the capstone design project to ensure that it remains effective and relevant in the future as foreseen in the Vision. Such a reformation however, requires (1) considerable dialogue in the civil engineering community, which in turn needs to be informed by research on topics such as inclusion of innovation and design challenges in capstone design projects, and (2) the extension of the aforementioned survey to sponsoring agencies and employers. These accomplishments, however, are unlikely to take place in a timely manner until research in SoTL is given equal recognition with the mainstream research in civil engineering.