Capstone is UF MAE’s culminating project. Teams of students in their 4th or 5th year apply accumulated knowledge and skills to design a pre-commercial prototype.
Following the engineering design process, teams converge to a final design, create detailed CAD models, and predict performance through engineering analyses. Depending on the project complexity, teams may build a physical prototype which undergoes extensive testing to evaluate performance and identify any issues. MAE Capstone’s culminating event is team project presentations given before panels that include customers, industry sponsors, faculty, and stakeholders.
UF’s MAE Capstone program is a pedagogical research ‘living laboratory’ where best practices in senior design instruction are evaluated for continuous program improvement. Given this foundation, UF MAE Capstone deploys numerous features that differentiate and distinguish it from peer senior design programs, including:
1. Applying industry techniques to course management to increase project quality and throughput [1]
2. Using SolidWorks PDM for CAD document control & communication [2]
3. Sourcing UF faculty projects to support their research and engage students in UF’s research mission [3]
4. Deploying innovative & accessible peer evaluation systems [4]
5. Leveraging AI to evaluate capstone student professional growth [5]
6. Enhancing accessibility through a student-authored OER engineering design textbook [6]
7. Blending makerspace with job shop fabrication capabilities [7]
8. Allowing students to retain their Intellectual Property inventorship to promote start-up creation