CAPSTONE DESIGN

Capstone Design is a creative, client-driven design experience emerging from combined efforts in civil, electrical, mechanical,  environmental and design engineering. The engineering community widely recognizes that many of the challenges facing society, now and in the future, can only be met through multidisciplinary approaches. Capstone Design embraces the uniqueness of each degree, while enabling students to address realistic, multidisciplinary challenges.

Mines Capstone Design collaborates with industry, government agencies, and community organizations to put students on the front lines of innovation and discovery through real-world challenges.  Our students tackle the latest challenges in:

  • space resource extraction,
  • renewable energy,
  • adaptive and assistive technologies,
  • international development,
  • building science,
  • water management,
  • habitat restoration,
  • heavy construction,
  • power systems,
  • and many others.

 

Capstone prepares students for the workforce by emphasizing project management skills, leadership, teamwork, human-centered design, and client-consultant engagements.

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) defines engineering design:

“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 engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective. Among fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing, and evaluation.”

The program has been developed to comply with the ABET guide that require the engineering design component of a curriculum to include the:

  • use of open-ended problems,
  • formulation of design problem statements and specifications,
  • consideration of multiple alternative solutions for the design constraints,
  • verification and validation of solution.

DO YOU HAVE AN ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECT?

We are always looking for clients who have design-focused engineering challenges for Mines’ seniors. Please see our client/sponsor page to submit a project idea.