University Of Wisconsin Madison Civil & Environmental Engineering Capstone Design Class A Class In Constant Redesign And Improvement

Instilling an understanding of design and the design process are key aspects of preparing civil engineering students for professional practice. The Civil & Environmental Engineering Capstone Design Class has been offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for more than 15 years. The focus of this Senior Level class is to immerse students in a situation where they work on a major design challenge in multi-disciplinary teams. This course integrates prior course work and skills, allowing students to solve problems taken from a "real world" context. Consistent with ABET criteria, this class prepares students for professional practice though a comprehensive experience involving design, management, economic, social and leadership aspects. The success of this class is directly attributable to the evolution of content, curriculum integration and cross-curricular collaboration developed and refined by faculty and mentors. The focus of this paper is to delineate and illustrate the evolution of the class resulting in positive impacts upon student outcomes and expectations. INTRODUCTION Instilling an understanding of design and the design process are key aspects of preparing civil engineering students for professional practice. This is the focus of the Capstone Design class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE). The evolution of this curriculum has resulted in positive impacts upon student outcomes and expectations as well as helping the department to comply with ABET accreditation criteria. The ABET Civil Engineering (CE) Program criteria state that “the program must demonstrate that graduates can apply knowledge of mathematics through differential equations, calculusbased physics, chemistry, and at least one additional area of science, consistent with the program educational objectives; can apply knowledge of four technical areas appropriate to civil engineering; can conduct civil engineering experiments and analyze and interpret the resulting P ge 15300.2 2 data; can design a system, component, or process in more than one civil engineering context; can explain basic concepts in management, business, public policy, and leadership; and can explain the importance of professional licensure.” The criteria further states that: “The program must demonstrate that faculty teaching courses that are primarily design in content are qualified to teach the subject matter by virtue of professional licensure, or by education and design experience. The program must demonstrate that it is not critically dependent on one individual.” (ABET 2008). Clearly, design and the process of formulating and delivering a design project are key aspects of preparing a civil engineering student for professional practice. The ABET definition of engineering design is as follows: “Engineering design is the process of devising a system, component, or process to meet desired needs. It is a decision-making process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and the engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet these stated needs.” More specifically, general criterion 3 (c) states that, “Engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have...an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability,” and hence design is essential to preparing civil engineers. Below we will describe in more detail the evolution of the capstone design class. I – CREATION (1994-2004) A new department-wide capstone design class was created as a result of our ABET visit and feedback in 1994. The capstone design class, at that time, was discipline-specific and with a narrow design context (i.e., a structure, foundation, water system, etc.) and failed to comply with the CE program criteria. The department embraced the ABET feedback as a means to improve the curriculum and student preparation for professional practice. The selected instructional strategy was to evolve a curriculum that develops young engineers through more hands-on experiences with real world projects. The scope and depth of the course P ge 15300.3 3 involves both formal lectures and active practical investigations within a team environment. The 4-credit course meets on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7:45 to 9:25 am. The Tuesday professional practice lectures provide a broad overview of applicable topics with some in-depth case study, with content in part, geared towards the informational needs of student teams in completing upcoming assignments. The Thursday hands-on group work sessions bring critical thinking and design skills into focus though the student’s integration of prior learning and applying it to a real project. The students are organized into teams of four individuals. This small group arrangement helps to ensure students are effectively engaged in the learning process throughout the semester. Each student group has at least one industry mentor (and in many cases two) that works with the group throughout the semester. Before the semester begins, students respond to a questionnaire and provide a brief resume to instructors. Instructors review the information and assign students to teams in one of three areas of focus; General Building, Transportation or Environmental, based upon their academic coursework and performance, practical experience, and career goals. Active student involvement is the key to successful engagement of students in this course. Twelve of the 17 class assignments are design team related. This ranges from preparing written proposals and summaries to the development of drawing specifications and contract documents. Class presentations to peers and formal presentations to judges also are important group activities. The class fosters essential joint learning activities such as role-playing, small group discussion, and collaborative problem-solving. Mutual responsibility for the overall team effort and work product is cultivated within the group setting. The capstone design class is intended as a melding of components from multiple mid-level courses that connects and uses prior accumulated knowledge, background, concepts and experiences. Prior course experiences, such as Technical Presentation and Writing, are linked with base knowledge from courses such as Construction Systems, Geotechnical Engineering, Structural Design, Transportation Engineering, and Environmental Practices. The integration of P ge 15300.4 4 design, teamwork and communication meets ABET criteria and desired outcomes. Also, consistent with ABET criteria and desired outcomes, design project requirements are presented to the design teams in such a manner as to encourage consideration of contemporary issues and concepts of sustainability by the teams in their formulation of a design solution. At the end of each semester course improvement feedback is solicited in two ways. Individual students complete a course evaluation and each student team has a personal interview, or debriefing session, with instructors and mentors. This constructive feedback is timely, honest and information-specific. This provides the course instructors with the opportunity to continually improve the effectiveness of the course through gradual refinement of course content and processes leading toward consistent improvement in positive outcomes. The course instructors also develop a self evaluation of course outcomes based upon detailed observations and notes made during the semester, and from comments provided by judges of the final student team presentations. The weeks between semesters are used by instructors to meet and review the feedback and plot a strategy and course of action for improvement. Implementation occurs in precise manageable increments each semester. A large number and a wide variety of practitioners serve as mentors for the course. These trusted advisors are experienced industry professionals who devote time to the students within the university setting. Their varied design expertise and experience in multiple civil engineering disciplines provides a unique breadth as well as depth to the course. Although mentors can fill any number of different roles, mentors share a common goal: to help students achieve their potential and expand their knowledge, skills, and attitudes within the real world experience of the capstone class. The introduction of real world team-based design projects into the course has a dual benefit. It is an excellent way to involve industry practitioners in education and it provides practical experiences and challenges for the students as part of the learning experience while they prepare P ge 15300.5 5 to transition to the real world. Team-based projects provide opportunities for students to learn individually as well as teach others in small learning groups, and also introduce the students to the need for effective team leadership, project management, and teamwork required in actual professional practice. Project-based learning is an effective and comprehensive approach to teaching in which students explore real world problems. They meet these challenges using an array of skills from basic math and language arts to team dynamics and computer technology. The project is open-ended and is not defined in advance for students. They must find their way through the project design process with the guidance of instructors and mentors. With this type of active and engaged learning, students are inspired to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they are studying. The project team environment facilitates positive communication and collaborative relationships among diverse groups of students. The instructors guide students in learning and practicing skills in problem solving, communication, and selfand teammanagement through the project. Proj