The Capstone Student Role

Industry-sponsored projects require participation by multiple parties to ensure success.  A commitment by the company is fundamental to ensuring an effective student learning experience.  EED staff select companies willing to make such a commitment and assign each team a faculty advisor to serve as team coach.  These advisors are typically faculty members with experience working with student teams and industry projects and with some degree of technical familiarity with the project scope.  But, it is up to each student to make the project a success by committing to the following guidelines:

1. As a team, create a team charter. Each individual team member agrees to a role and responsibility and a shared sense of purpose in pursuing the project objective.
2. Establish a team leader and customer liaison.
3. Perform professionally, especially when interfacing with the customer.
4. Follow the design process with a strong focus on “defining the problem” and meeting established benchmarks including project deliverables.
5. Create and adhere to a project schedule.
6. Commit to achieving the learning outcomes paying particular attention to professional development.
7. Be a good team member and encourage others to be the same.
8. Develop an understanding of when to seek advice and assistance from project advisors especially in the area of technical resources to understand and solve the design problem.
9. Hold effective team meetings.
10. Keep a well-documented project notebook/Design Document.
11. Practice “continued improvement” in technical/professional communication skills.
12. Take extreme care in documenting and keeping private all potential intellectual property.
13. Invest an average of 8-10 hours per week on this project.
14. Use time management skills to complete assigned tasks on time and with high quality.
15. Attend all team meetings and company visits and be flexible with your schedule to allow for mutually convenient meeting times.
16. Hold yourself and others accountable for your respective responsibilities.
17. Participate in all formative assessment activities.
18. Provide constructive feedback to course instructors to improve the program.
19. Participate in the Capstone Design Showcase event.