Comparing patterns of quantitative literacy in mechanical and industrial engineering capstone teams

One of the desired outcomes of capstone design is the ability to use mathematical arguments such as calculations, modeling, and statistical data analysis to inform design decisions. TheVALUErubric for quantitative literacy (QL) was used to assess the work of 66 capstone teams from a program that contains both mechanical engineering and industrial engineering groups. The goal was to determine if there were particular team, discipline, or project characteristics that led to high quantitative literacy in the final project. Correlation analysis indicates that high levels of quantitative literacy are associated with more successful projects. In particular, the ability to discuss and present calculations seems to be an indicator of success. The patterns of correlations are different for mechanical and industrial engineering teams. Industrial engineering teams who performed highly in the communication aspect of quantitative literacy tend to have higher overall quantitative literacy scores, while this relationship was not as strong for the mechanical engineering groups. © 2019 TEMPUS Publications.