Faculty-Driven vs. Student-Driven Projects for Mechatronics Engineering Capstone скачать в хорошем качестве

Faculty-Driven vs. Student-Driven Projects for Mechatronics Engineering Capstone

This presentation was given at the ASEE conference in Montreal, Canada, June 24, 2025. The senior capstone design experience plays a crucial role in undergraduate engineering education, offering students a valuable opportunity to bridge the gap between theory and real-world practice. Typically spanning a year, this team-based challenge allows students to apply their knowledge to a comprehensive engineering design project. In traditional disciplines like mechanical or electrical engineering, students often engage in industry-sponsored projects that are carefully scoped to provide both a rewarding educational experience and tangible value to industry partners. However, for interdisciplinary fields such as mechatronics engineering, finding industry projects that fully capture the essence of a mechatronics capstone project can be more difficult due to the variety of elements required but need for a narrow enough scope for undergraduates. This paper presents a two-course senior capstone design sequence at Middle Tennessee State University, specifically tailored for undergraduate mechatronics engineering students. It outlines two distinct approaches employed at MTSU to enhance the capstone experience for mechatronics engineering majors. The first approach, used from 2015-2019, features faculty-driven design projects, where professors independently define the problem statement, scope, and design criteria, and assign team members, with no input from students. The second approach, implemented from 2019-2024, emphasizes student-driven projects, where students form teams themselves and collaborate closely with faculty to co-create the design challenge, identify the problem, and establish appropriate design constraints. The strengths and weaknesses of both approaches are compared, and sample projects are provided, along with general student feedback and faculty observations, as well as survey data from the most recent 2024 class. The authors aim to share insights, resources, and lessons learned at Middle Tennessee State University that may benefit faculty at other institutions tasked with developing capstone course sequences for mechatronics engineering majors. Additionally, the approaches discussed in this paper can be adapted for traditional mechanical or electrical engineering programs, particularly for students with a strong interest in mechatronics, robotics, and interdisciplinary applications. Questions? Collaboration? Comment below or connect with me on Linkedin at www.linkedin.com/in/elissa-ledoux Suggested Citation Format: Ledoux, E.D. and B.J. Slaboch, “Faculty-Driven vs. Student-Driven Projects for Mechatronics Engineering Capstone,” ASEE 2025 Conference, Montreal, Canada, June 2025.