6.5.0 Integrating Systems Engineering into Engineering Curricula Through Capstone Projects

With funding from the Department of Defense, a research effort is underway to understand the methods through which systems engineering learning and career interest may be increased among undergraduate and graduate engineering students. This research is being conducted in the context of 14 “capstone” projects, in most cases as an integrative culminating, project-based course, and in one case involving an entire SE graduate curriculum, involving teams of students working together on the development of a product or prototype that addresses a real Department of Defense need. Implemented as pilot projects in eight civilian and six military universities, these 14 institutions are piloting methods, materials, and approaches to create new courses, enhance existing courses, and adapt curricula, to embed, infuse, and augment systems engineering knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors, as defined by the SPRDE-SE/PSE Competency Model. This session will present an overview of the overall Systems Engineering Capstone research and findings to date, along with an overview and discussion of three different approaches to course design and preliminary student impacts.