Capstone Engineering Design Projects For Community Colleges

Abstract

Capstone engineering design courses have been a feature at research universities and four-year schools for many years.  Although such classes are less common at two-year colleges, the experience is equally beneficial for this population of students.  With this in mind, Madison College introduced a project-based Engineering Design course in 2007.  This paper explores Madison College’s experience over the past decade offering this class.  Unique challenges and opportunities for engineering design courses at two-year colleges are discussed.  Our findings include several recommended practices to benefit colleges and universities at any level that are creating new engineering design courses.