Using Senior Design Capstone as Model for Graduate Education

The Civil Engineering Department at Rose-Hulman recently modified its M.S. program in environmental engineering to replace the thesis with a structured design course. Our efforts are based on the hypothesis that engineers at the graduate level also need to be taught “how to design.” Recent pedagogical efforts emphasize the need for the baccalaureate-level engineer to learn how to design a standard product that meets the needs of a client within a determined budget. This level of design involves the integration of several technical tools as well as client preferences and other constraints such as codes, regulations, economics, etc. Senior design efforts, such as the one at Rose-Hulman, help the student to start this preparation. We argue that the master's-level student not only needs a higher level of technical skill, but also increased sophistication with design focusing on nonstandard problems. These problems have a higher level of technical requirements that require creative and often unique solutions. Rose-Hulman is attempting to prepare master's-level engineers with a client-sponsored investigative design project . “How to design” is taught to both graduate and undergraduate students via integrated capstone courses that are the subject of this paper.