A Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of a Multidisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design Course
A Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of a Multidisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design Course
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DOI：
10.1002/j.2168-9830.2012.tb01122.x
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发表时间：
2012-10-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Forest, Craig R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hotaling, Nathan;Fasse, Barbara Burks;Forest, Craig R.
背景Capstone设计课程旨在通过挑战学生团队来解决现实世界的问题，为工程学学生为工业做好准备。为了改善这方面的准备，大学项目最近把重点放在了建立多学科团队上。然而，有限的定量证据表明，多学科学生工程团队开发的项目质量更高，或者为工作做好了更好的准备。HYPOTHESIS通过就业安置和/或工业专业人员对学生产品的独立评估来衡量，参加多学科顶石设计(MCD)课程的学生比单学科顶石学生的结果更好。方法对佐治亚理工学院顶石设计专业的学生进行为期一学期的单一治疗，包括三个课程条件：(1)单学科生物医学，(2)单学科机械，或(3)多学科生物医学和机械工程。课程结束后，学生的累积GPA、就业安置和设计展示分数被获得并分析。结果一般线性模型显示，所有选修MCD课程的学生，无论主修什么专业，所产生的工程解决方案都好于由外部行业专业人员衡量的单学科同龄人。Logistic回归和多项式回归显示，MCD课程显著增加了生物医学工程专业学生的就业机会。结论在本次初步调查中，MCD团队在创新、实用、分析、概念验证和沟通能力方面的整体表现优于单学科团队，平均而言，他们被录用的频率更高。
BACKGROUNDCapstone design courses seek to prepare engineering students for industry by challenging student teams to solve real-world problems. To improve this preparation, university programs have recently focused on creating multidisciplinary teams. However, there is limited quantitative evidence showing that multidisciplinary student engineering teams develop higher quality projects or are better prepared for the work force.HYPOTHESISStudents who take a multidisciplinary capstone design (MCD) course have better outcomes than monodisciplinary capstone students as measured by job placement and/or independent evaluation by industrial professionals of students' products.METHODOLOGYA single treatment was administered to Georgia Tech capstone design students for one semester with three course conditions: (1) monodisciplinary biomedical, (2) monodisciplinary mechanical, or (3) multidisciplinary biomedical and mechanical engineering. After course completion, students' cumulative GPA, job placement, and design exposition score were obtained and analyzed. This analysis used a generalized linear model for the exposition score and a logistic model for job placement outcomes.RESULTSA general linear model showed that all students who took the MCD course, regardless of major, produced an engineering solution that was better than that of their monodisciplinary contemporaries as measured by external industry professionals. Logistic and multinomial regressions showed that the MCD course increased the odds of employment significantly for biomedical engineering students.CONCLUSIONSIn this preliminary investigation, the MCD teams' holistic performance in innovation, utility, analysis, proof of concept, and communication skills was superior to that of their monodisciplinary counterparts, and, on average, they were hired more frequently.