Capstone Project Wiki

Welcome to Capstone!

This syllabus describes the structure of the Capstone class and provides information about organization, procedures, and policies. It also presents the grading algorithms used to establish your grade in Capstone.

Please note that the syllabus provides an overview. Detailed information for most topics included in the syllabus is found in the other sections of the Capstone Project Wiki.

Capstone has been designed to simulate the experience of professional engineering work to achieve the Capstone Objective and Course Outcomes.

Help students become engineering design professionals who can blend creative, technical, interpersonal, and management skills to develop products that are both desirable and transferable.

1. Develop skills in project planning, idea generation, prototyping, developing engineering models, product development economics, and clearly conveying information both in writing and orally.
2. Understand how to work within organizational policies to accomplish important goals.
3. Demonstrate the ability to use effective team processes, communication, and conflict resolution skills to enhance team synergy, provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
4. As a part of a team, use a real-world problem solving process to develop, solve, and explore appropriate engineering models for your project, and effectively communicate the results of this analysis.
5. Apply the understanding and skills from the other outcomes while working with a project sponsor in a team setting to produce desirable and transferable product information through design, building, and testing, while considering public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.
6. Recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed decisions, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.

1. Understand the six stages of development through which product designs evolve.
2. Understand how the requirements, tests, and design evolve through each stage of development.
3. Understand how a design network is used to cause the product information to evolve, and how the network can be customized for specific development projects.
4. Understand how artifact checks, performance testing, and validation testing are used to ensure the desirability and transferability of the design at each stage of development.
5. Develop skills in engineering drawing, schematic diagram, PC board layout, state machine diagram, and/or UML review and checking.
6. Develop and demonstrate a deep understanding in some of the following crucial design skill areas: Planning, Discovering, Creating, Representing, Modeling, Prototyping, Experimenting, Evaluating, Deciding, Conveying.
7. Demonstrate the ability to use effective team processes, communication, and conflict resolution skills to enhance team synergy, provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
8. As a part of a team, use a real-world problem solving process to develop, solve, and explore appropriate engineering models for your project, and effectively communicate the results of this analysis.
9. Apply the understanding and skills from ME EN/EC EN 475 and the other outcomes from ME EN/EC EN 476 while working with a project sponsor in a team setting to produce desirable and transferable designs, while considering public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.

The capstone objective and course outcomes are set up to support the Mission & Aims of BYU.

Engineering projects are complex and have many moving parts. At times, you may find it hard to keep up with all that is going on in Capstone. To make it easier for you to succeed with your project and this course, we have created a dashboard for each student at byucapstone.byu.edu. This dashboard is customized for each individual student, and has links to individual and team assignments, scheduled class events, individual and team information, orders, educational resources, and anything else you might need to succeed in Capstone.

If you can't find what you need on the dashboard, please contact your pod instructor or the Capstone office staff for help.

Contact Information has detailed contact information for members of the Capstone team.

There two main components of Capstone, which leads to two interrelated schedules.

• Instruction Schedule describes the schedule for instructional activities aimed at understanding and applying the principles of product development.

• Project Schedule describes the schedule for the activities involved in successfully completing your project.

In most classes, the instructor schedules your time by giving you assignments with fixed deadlines, along with exams covering defined portions of the coursework. This principle applies to only 20% (2 hours per week) of your time in Capstone. The majority of your time (8 hours per week) is allocated to your work on your individual project. The instructors cannot schedule project time for you. You must be responsible for scheduling yourself. Successful teams make good use of their project time.

Capstone Time Management provides more information on successful time management.

20% of your Capstone grade is based on individual assignments. 80% is based on team assignments. Both of these categories are discussed below.

The individual assignments you will have each semester include the following (follow the links for more information):

Discussions and Instructional Packets (13% of the grade) Each student must complete an instructional packet for each class period. For coaches, a course packet must be submitted by each member of the team. The packet includes questions on the readings, results of team discussions, and questions about the application of your learning to your work on the Capstone project.

Only students who attend class and participate in the team discussion during class time will be given credit for the team discussion part of the packet.

Product Development Exam (6% of the grade) During the final exam period, you will have an individual exam on the theory of product development and its application to your project. The exam will be approximately 75% machine-scored (for theory) and 25% free-response (for application).

Peer and Coach Evaluations (1% of the grade)Twice per semester you will be sent an email link to a Qualtrics survey asking you to evaluate your team members and your coach. Full credit is given when you complete the surveys. We ask you to take these evaluations seriously.

Online Course Evaluation (1% extra credit) We ask you to take the Online Course Evaluation provided by BYU. This gives feedback to the instructors to help us make changes to improve your Capstone experience. We will give 1% in extra credit to every student who completes the Online Course Evaluation and shares their name when doing so. Please note that sharing your name does not allow us to match any responses with your name; it only allows us to know that you have completed the evaluation.

Late Work Policy Capstone policy is that no late work is accepted on individual assignments, unless prior arrangements are made due to circumstances beyond the student's control. If an illness or other emergency prevents your submitting an individual assignment on time, please contact your pod instructor immediately.

Individual Contribution Summary Worksheet Your proficiency in the crucial design skills (see Chapter 3 of the textbook) will be evaluated twice per semester by reviewing your contributions to the team reported in the Individual Contribution Summary worksheet. This will be part of the Product Development Project grade, rather than the Individual Personal Development grade.

The team assignments include Weekly Status Updates, Design Reviews, and the Final Report for each semester. The Final Report will be graded, and you will also be given a professionalism score based on your Weekly Status Updates and your full participation in Capstone, including following Capstone processes.

Design Reviews Each semester you will have three design reviews. One will be a presentation-only review; one will be a presentation plus artifact review; one will be a presentation plus artifact plus design report review. Only the grade on the final review of each semester applies to your Capstone class grade. At these reviews, you will be graded on the quality and transferability of the artifacts you submit.

Fall Semester Design Report/Final Design Report At the end of each semester, you will submit a final design report. This report will be a final version of a report initially submitted at the final design review of the semester.

Weekly Status Updates Each week you will submit a status update to the sponsor detailing your progress on the project.

Other Professionalism Items Fully meeting Capstone expectations and following Capstone policies will result in a high Professionalism grade. More details are found in Team Professionalism Score.

Grading in Capstone is absolute, not relative. Grades will not be curved. It is possible for every student to earn an A. See Capstone Grading for grading details.

We would like every student in Capstone to earn an A. This is possible because you are not competing against each other. The following suggestions should help you earn an A:

1. Create (and maintain) excellent Requirements Matrix or Software Requirements Specification and Key Success Measures that reflect the sponsor’s desires. Your team will be graded based on how well you meet these requirements. If they reflect the desires of your sponsor, there will be no tension between succeeding in the class and succeeding on your project. It is your responsibility to get these requirements right; we cannot do it for you.
   As you work on your project, you will learn more about the real requirements for your project. Use the Change Management Procedures you have developed to make and track changes to the requirements. Make sure that the Key Success Measures always reflect the sponsor's needs.
2. Use your project requirements to drive your work. Your project work should focus on meeting the project requirements. Through the course of the semester, keep track (in written form) of how well you are meeting these requirements. The artifacts you create should support the requirements you have developed for your product. Evidence of meeting the requirements is essential to a high-quality design.
3. Be thoughtful about your artifacts and other documentation. Your work will be evaluated based on the documentation you create. Create documentation as you do testing and other design activities, rather than waiting until the end. Use the given rubrics as you prepare your artifacts and review submissions. The rubrics will be used by the coaches that are grading your work. If you create a design review submission containing high-quality artifacts that answer the review questions as described in the design review rubric, you can expect to receive a high grade.
   As your team has others review your artifacts and design review submissions, you should ask them to give you an evaluation based on the relevant rubric. As you self-evaluate your design review submissions, you should evaluate them based on the rubric. Feedback that is not based on the rubric may also be helpful, but your team's submissions will be graded based on the rubrics.
4. Make sure you complete all of the individual professional development assignments. These are worth 20% of your grade. If you ignore the individual professional development assignments, the best you can possibly do is a B-, and the best you can realistically do is a C+.
5. Make sure you are a full participant on your team. If you expect your team to carry you, two things are likely to happen. First, your team will be less successful than it would be with your full participation. Second, you are likely to have your grade lowered as a non-participating team member.
6. Meet the Capstone team professionalism requirements. Make sure you complete all Capstone professional performance requirements due throughout each semester.

That’s all there is. Focusing on these six things will put you in the best position to earn an A in Capstone.

In the Capstone program, students have been given significant access to the resources of the University. To be able to use these resources, we must follow the polices that govern their use. Failure to follow Capstone Policies will negatively impact both your individual and team grades.

There are many resources available through Capstone to help you succeed in your project. Full details are provided under Resources.

University Policies about COVID-19, the Honor Code, and respect for individual differences will be followed by Capstone. See the link for more details.