A Review of the Civil Engineering Capstone Curriculum

This study aims to evaluate how different university institutions approach their final year Civil Engineering capstone design course and will evaluate how well capstone courses across Canada prepare students for their careers post graduation. The overarching goal is to propose a national curriculum for this course. Using both an extensive literature review and a targeted survey across Canada, as well as answers provided by current capstone course directors from several institutions, a larger picture of how capstone courses are run from one school to another was constructed. The survey was used to identify both strengths and weaknesses in the way that each course is run and identify opportunities for curriculum development. Findings include that gaps identified by course instructors are positively impacted by more industry involvement. The results from this study will help the scholarly community design capstone courses that align with industry needs and prepare students to enter the engineering workforce.