ABSTRACT
The first National Capstone Design Conference was held at the University of Colorado (June 13 to 15, 2007). There were over 170 participants from industry, universities and colleges throughout the United States and five other countries. This conference was focused on improving the capstone, or senior design course, experience. This course is arguably the most important educational component in almost all undergraduate engineering curricula, and is reflected as such by the importance placed upon capstone design by the ABET accreditation criteria. Faculty from all branches of engineering, business, physics and other departments participated in the conference. Generous industry sponsorships from IBM, Ball, Boeing, Coors, Covidien, Gambro BCT, and General Dynamics, plus grants from NSF and ASEE, the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado insured the conference’s economic viability. This enabled low conference fees and the awarding of conference fellowships, which in turn helped increase attendance…
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Jack Zable
Industry Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado