TREND ANALYSIS OF CAPSTONE DESIGN PROJECTS FOR IMPROVING UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Capstone design project is a major component of undergraduate engineering education. It provides an opportunity for the graduating students to combine several engineering principles and practices into a functional prototype in order to meet some customer requirements or to solve a technical challenge. In order to enhance the capstone design experience of the students, it is necessary to analyze the projects carried out over a sufficiently long time. Projects can be analyzed based on several criteria. Examples could be its source of sponsorship, technology being used in the project, and its field of application. Also, such an analysis needs to look at the preparatory ingredients of the curriculum in the lower level that led to the capstone design project. A mini project in a course can be an important contributor for a capstone design project. A mini project is one that combines several concepts/topics within that course into a small design or implementation unit. Usually a mini project spans over a few weeks and includes a report and/or presentation on a topic chosen either by the instructor or by students. A respectable credit is assigned for such a mini project within a course. A curriculum that contains several courses with mini projects in earlier years of education would help students prepare well for the capstone design project. If these mini projects of different courses are designed coherently, the experience gained by the students is significant. As such, the mini projects undertaken by the students in a curriculum need careful consideration in order to have relevance and impact on the capstone design project. This paper attempts a study and an analysis of the mini projects as well as capstone design projects carried out at Electronics and Telecommunications engineering program of a University. This analysis found out strong industry sponsorship of capstone projects (more than half) as strength that need to be maintained as well as a few shortcomings that need to be overcome. It also revealed correlation between the trend of mini projects and capstone design projects in the curriculum.