James Madison University

Department of Engineering Capstone Symposium

The Department of Engineering Capstone Symposium is held annually each April. The 2014 Symposium will be held on Friday, April 25 from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. in the Highlands Room at the Festival and Student Conference Center.  

The Engineering Symposium showcases junior and senior projects from the Department of Engineering capstone experience.  The Department of Engineering capstone experience is a culminating engineering design experience that enables our students to address a real-world need through the application of a design process, engineering science, systems thinking, and sustainability perspectives. The experience spans a two-year duration (junior and senior years) with students working in teams of four to six students.  A typical design process involves:

  • Planning and information gathering,
  • Concept generation, evaluation, and selection,
  • Design embodiment and modeling,
  • Testing and refinement.  

In each of the four semesters of the experience, students are required to prepare a formal design report as well as deliver a formal presentation to faculty, student peers, and external constituents (sponsors, industry representatives, collaborators, etc.)

Important Dates

To be announced

Abstracts

  • Abstracts should be finalized and free of errors before submission, as they will appear in the printed program exactly as they are submitted. Please review your abstracts carefully for correct spelling, grammar, specialized symbols, and so forth.
  • Abstracts have a 250-word limit. Abstracts that exceed the word limit may be truncated in publication.
  • Include a high-resolution photo of you/your team working on your capstone project (Please provide a one-sentence description of your photo along with the name(s) of people represented in your photo.

Posters

Content

Posters are 48” x 36” in size.  Students should use the poster template provided on Blackboard.

Posters should include: 

  • Roles and Responsibilities of team members to inform faculty which students have been responsible for which aspects
  • Planning information potentially including:  Mission Statement, Customer Needs, Market Analysis, Functions, Specifications, Constraints, et cetera
  • Concept generation, evaluation, and selection potentially including:  Alternative designs, Evaluation, Conceptual design, Analysis of designs, Final design
  • Embodiment of design potentially including:  Modeling performed (Analytical and Physical)
  • Testing and Refinement potentially including:  alpha and beta prototype, testing and refinement
  • Address Sustainabilityin applicable contexts
  • Future work and timeline (if continuing to work on this project next term)
  • Schedule and location for remote public demonstrations (if applicable).

Printing

  • Submit your final poster on Blackboard for printing by the dates listed above . Name the file in the following way: 2014_OneWordCapstoneName.pptx and 2014_ OneWordCapstoneName.pdf.
  • Posters will be paid for by the Department of Engineering.

Symposium Day

Poster Set-up/Tear-down

  • Students will set up their own posters at the assigned location.  (Signage will indicate team locations.)
  • Poster board and binder clips will be available on easels. (Please do not use any form of tape to mount your poster to the board.)
  • All posters must be set up at a pre-determined time on April 25th in the Highlands Room.
  • Please take down your poster after 5:00 p.m. on April 25th.