Start earlier, prepare better: An engineering senior seminar course

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Abstract

This paper describes a seminar course offered to senior engineering students to prepare them for their senior design projects and to prepare them for their future professional careers. Most undergraduate curricula, especially in the field of engineering, include senior design as one of the capstone courses. Successful senior projects demonstrate the knowledge and problem-solving abilities of students as well as professionalism through the reports, posters, presentations, etc. For many traditional students, the senior design may be their first "real" project, thus students need a set of guidelines for engineering projects and they need preparation for their first milestone as professionals. Therefore, a part of this course covers the topics of defining a project, writing technical documents (e.g. proposals and reports), and preparing and delivering oral presentations. Students follow a general guideline and submit a proposal for their senior design projects to be completed in the following semester. Accordingly, a formal presentation is also required. The other set of topics comes from the fact that most students enrolled in this course will graduate within one year and, hereby, require development of their personal and professional skills, both short term skills (e.g. resume writing, job searching, and interviewing skills) as well as long term skills (e.g. graduate study, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and professional skills) for life after graduation. For example, as part of the short term goal, we invite a professional from the campus career center to introduce students to the job market, job hunting skills and the corresponding services the university offers. For the long term goal, class discussion plays a key role since it not only improves students' communication skills, but also helps them understand their professional and ethical responsibilities as engineers. The connections of this senior seminar course with the follow-up senior design course, assessment methods, and ABET outcomes are also addressed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.

Identifier

85029041792 (Scopus)

Publication Title

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Conference Proceedings

e-ISSN

21535965

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