Quality Assurance of Capstone Senior Design Projects: A Case Study

Abstract

Abstract A Capstone Senior Design project encompasses all ABET learning outcomes as it summarizes all the essential technical and non-technical skills a higher learning institution prepares its graduates to acquire and apply. A successful and high quality senior design project is proof of the quality of education offered by a higher institute of learning, the quality of its graduates, its faculty, and its facilities. Hence, in order to ensure high quality senior design projects, it is imperative to put in place a quality assurance and monitoring system besides providing essential resources. It is also very important to mentor students and provide them a supportive and conducive environment which encourages creativity and innovation. In this paper, the authors present a case study of how senior design projects in the Electrical Engineering department at authors’ university are systematically administered and monitored to meet the quality standards, educational objectives, and ABET student learning outcomes. Evaluation methods (both direct and indirect) and developed assessment tools used are also presented along with survey results of students’ feedback. It is also shown how senior design projects impact the continuous improvement process followed at the program level.