Design and experimental capstone: An integrated experience
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
We report on student outcomes across three phases in the development of the BME senior capstone experience. The BME department provides a comprehensive capstone experience to its seniors. All students enroll in a two-course, team-based, device design capstone sequence and a concurrent two-course, team-based, experimental research capstone sequence. The goal of the device design capstone is to advance intellectual property while providing a multidisciplinary design experience. In the first course of the sequence, the teams are presented with a clinical problem and are expected to conceive, design, prototype and evaluate devices with innovative solutions. The course emphasizes information gathering, establishing requirements, concept development, and evaluation. In the second course in the sequence, a verification plan is generated and implemented. The goal of the experimental research capstone sequence is to introduce students to the design and conduct of a pilot study involving human subjects. To this end, students develop a hypothesis, design an experimental protocol to test the hypothesis, conduct an experiment or survey, and use an appropriate statistical analysis of the data. The course also requires students to design an Informed Consent form, adopt high ethical standards for research involving human subjects, and generate a scientific manuscript to report the results. We found that a close integration between experimental methods of testing/data collection was critical in the initial and final stages of design. Those teams that had an integrated design and experimental capstone experience produced better designs than those teams that had separate experiences. American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.
