Engineering Physics Capstone Course EP4A06 – Design and Synthesis project Shown here are group pictures of the leading teams from 2012/2013.

Engineering Physics Capstone CourseEP4A06 – Design and Synthesis project

Shown here are group pictures of the leading teams from 2012/2013

The Concept and Philosophy

The project requires the students to utilize the skills they have acquired, and those that they continue to acquire, during the course of the Engineering Physics Program.

All students in the program are aware and excited by the project – we stress the definition of capstone.

Emphasis is placed upon a celebration of their achievements. The students work in teams of three of their choosing. Significant guidance and help is provided with regard to management of time and planning.

We have failed if students do not complete the project on time; if the students spend an unbalanced amount of time on the project; do not feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the project.

The project outcomes are closely monitored using the graduate attributed model.

Organization

One faculty lead, plus three more faculty members acting as a review committee. Three TAs of high quality (usually former EP students who have taken the course).

Three organizational lectures at commencement; including safety instruction. The remainder of course is spent in the project room- 3 hours compulsory every week, 8am to 10pm

access is available via key card control.

On-going assessment via weekly one page reports to TAs (plus 15 minute discussion on progress) Each group meets with faculty review committee every two weeks and makes 15 minute presentation

followed by Q and A The aim is to early flag problems within groups such as conflict, failing behind schedule etc. In 2012/2013 4 such instances occurred triggering a remedial intervention by faculty lead, and an

agreed plan with the group.

The teams are required to make an interim demonstration of the working prototype in January (key implementation to 1012/2013 course); followed by a full demonstration on Engineering Physics Race Day in March.

Support offered

Dedicated project room which is well-equipped (stock taking responsibility of TAs). Each group has an assigned TA as a working point of contact. Laboratory technicians provide logistical ad-hoc support. Access to Engineering and Science machine shop (good working relationship with Clealand

Berwick). Practical workshops offered to the students at beginning of course (PIC programming, soldering,

PCB design and manufacture, machine workshop etc.) Safety instruction offered in week 1 of the course.

Assessment and timeline

Safety quiz – 5% September 18th proposal/initial design report -15% October 10th weekly letters -20% October 10th to March 5th bi-weekly committee meetings -10% October 17th to Feb 26th interim demonstration -10% Jan 8th final report -25% April 11th performance – 15% March 19th (Race day)

The assessment provides a balance between ultimate performance and on-going effort

It also provides a means for ‘early warning’ of issues.

The 2012/2013 Project – “The Minesweeper”

Teams were required to build an autonomous vehicle which could detect 3 LEDs ( each of different colour) embedded on a grid

The vehicle was required to communicate a map of the grid to a remote laptop; indicated the position of each LED and its colour; and then return to one of the LEDs randomly selected by colour prior to the run.

To complete the task students were required to address the concepts of sense, feedback, adjust and report.

Frame grab from video posted on Engineering facebook page

Final Grades 2012/2013

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90

Percentage Bin

Fre

qu

en

cy Average = 79.5 %

STD = 6.2The distribution of final grades shows a higher mean than for other courses; but this is perhaps what we hope for from a capstone project.

Attributes

The capstone project is an ideal provider of information of graduate attributes.

In 2012/2013 it was used to map (i) Design, (ii) Use of Engineering Tools, (iii) Individual and Team Work and (iv) Sustainability

The rubrics consisted of specific achievement on all or part of an assigned task; observation by faculty and TAs; and self-assessment.

0

5

10

15

20

25

Fails Below Meets Exceeds

Recognizes and follows and engineering design process

0

5

10

15

20

25

Fails Below Meets Exceeds

Able to work in a group, taking/relinquishing a leadership role

where appropriate

Publicity

We have found that the capstone project attracts great interest throughout the Engineering Physics cohort

Teams volunteer to demonstrate their working prototypes at first year recruitment evening

Race days are ‘festival events’ at which beverage food is served and a faculty student ‘get-together’ follows in the evening

We post footage of raceday on the Engineering Facebook page and selected runs on YouTube.

4A06 demo