Senior (Capstone) Design

2009 Senior Slide Show (pdf)

Overview

The Grado Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) Senior Design program is the capstone, integrative that provides the basic skills to senior students needed to effectively plan, manage and control technical projects. Across two academic semesters, student teams study project management in order to apply their acquired technical skills and knowledge to develop a proposal and design a solution for a real-world problem from a manufacturing or service industry which enables the sponsor to address practical industrial and systems engineering challenges which may be outside the scope or capacity of those normally handled by in-house personnel.

2008-2009 Project Sponsors

Cross-cultural partners:

• Loughborough University, UK (through Aerospace and Ocean Engineering)
• Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France
• Brazil

Benefits

The program provides benefit to the sponsor in the following ways:

1. Through sponsorship of a senior design team, the sponsor gains access to faculty expertise and laboratory capabilities within the ISE department in one or more of the five technical option areas: Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics, Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Management Systems Engineering, Operations Research, and Systems Engineering.
2. The sponsor gains the services a student team, that serves in a consultancy capacity at the sponsor’s site part-time for one full academic year.
3. The sponsor gains considerable experience with the students, and can make a much more informed decision about tendering a permanent employment offer than on the more typical basis of one interview and plant trip.
4. The sponsor can network with other industrial sponsors in the Program and thus can foster benchmarking and other professional processes in these relationships.
5. The sponsor can experience the professional benefits and gain the public relations benefits from a mentoring relationship with student teams.

The program provides benefit to the student in the following ways:

1. The student has the opportunity to work on an applied industrial engineering problem of direct interest to a company or agency, and thus is motivated by the potential for seeing a tangible impact of his/her consulting efforts on real problems.
2. The student interacts with company personnel and learns to work under actual industrial/government conditions, gaining valuable interpersonal skills and practical technical experience.
3. The student completes the senior design course sequence during the completion of his/her degree program, while concurrently developing professional contacts with a potential employer.

Why Intensive, Experiential Capstone Design?

Industrial Engineers often have project management responsibilities. Whether working as a resident industrial engineer or as a consultant, it is imperative that the Industrial Engineer have the skills and knowledge associated with the technical, project management and customer components of technical projects.

Thus, most professional work will include project involvement, either as a project leader, project owner, or as project member. Industry is also shifting from hierarchical structures to flexible, flat, team-based structures operating within a supply chain framework. ISE 4005, together with ISE 4006, is designed to be the capstone, integrative experience that provides the basic skills needed to effectively plan, manage and control technical projects. Specifically, students work in teams to apply the skills learned to develop a project proposal for a real-world problem from a manufacturing or service industry.

6 minute design team briefing in the "Boardroom"

Industrial Engineering, like the other engineering disciplines, is concerned with both analysis and design. In ISE 4005, students concentrate on developing a technical proposal as well as performing technical analyses related to their project. In ISE 4006, students focus on the design and implementation aspects of their project as well as hone their technical writing and oral presentation skills. The yearlong capstone experience culminates with the ‘Senior’ Symposium-, a technical conference-like event at which company representatives, students and faculty share and celebrate the project results.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Senior Design Team:
  • Manage team process.
  • Manage all aspects of project (technical, project management, customer satisfaction).
  • Interact with faculty advisor.
  • Meet course requirements.
  • Interface with client.
  • Visit client regularly.
  • Participate in class regularly.
  • Project Manager serves as lead contact.
• Faculty Advisor:
  • Mentor team on technical issues. Ensure project validity.
  • Help team integrate relevant components of industrial and systems engineering. Visit project client at least once/semester.
  • Evaluate technical aspects of team’s work.
• Company Contact/Client:
  • Mentor team on customer issues. Evaluate customer satisfaction aspects of team’s work.
  • Be accessible to assist team.
  • Provide data.
  • Identify proprietary information to ensure company protection.
  • Sponsors are encouraged to reimburse students for their travel and other incidental expenses such as materials or copying costs.
• Course Instructor:
  • Teach project management content. Evaluate project management aspects of team’s work.
  • Facilitate and coordinate all aspects of the senior design experience.

Participating in Virginia Tech's Capstone Design Program: A Tutorial for Clients and Advisors

For More Information:

bkleiner@vt.edu

Dr. Brian M. Kleiner
Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
519E Whittemore Hall
(540) 231-4926
FAX 231-3322