Designing Electrical and Computer Engineering Capstone Projects to meet ABET Outcomes

Senior design projects are now expected to meet multiple dimensions of student outcomes. For example, ABET criterion 3, student outcome (2) requires students to have "an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors." Furthermore, ABET criterion 5 d requires "a culminating major engineering design experience that 1) incorporates appropriate engineering standards and multiple constraints, and 2) is based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work." Designing appropriate senior capstone projects in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) that satisfy these ABET requirements can sometimes be a challenge. To ensure that faculty and student-proposed senior capstone projects meet these criteria, the ECE faculty at XXX University recently developed a screening tool to ensure that projects meet these criteria. This paper will present this screening tool and show a wide range of ECE project examples to illustrate how student project descriptions may be developed and refined to meet the required ABET outcomes.