Ramana Pidaparti
Capstone design courses are a vital component in the education of engineers, providing them an opportunity to work in teams on real-world engineering projects as they begin the transition from school to work.
Ramana Pidaparti, a professor in the University of Georgia College of Engineering, has created a new workbook designed to provide students in multiple disciplines a systematic process to follow in their capstone design projects and to get feedback through design reviews. Capstone Engineering Design: Project Process and Reviews was recently published by Morgan & Claypool Publishers.
“As an engineering educator, I believe capstone design courses are vital as students need to demonstrate through a real-world project what they have already learned in their engineering curriculum, much like a practicing engineer,” said Pidaparti. “Capstone design project experience also may lead to a potential job opportunity if students do a good job and excite their industry sponsor.”
Pidaparti’s book provides a brief overview of the engineering design process as well as templates, tools, and student design notes. The workbook is designed to be used as a working document, allowing students to document individual and team decisions, to make sketches of their concepts, and to add additional design documentation. The workbook also assists in documenting student responsibility and accountability for individual contributions to the project.
“This book will help students reinforce the design process and scaffold them through design steps for them follow to come up with a feasible design satisfying all stakeholders,” said Pidaparti. “It will also help educators assess individual student contributions as well as an overall assessment of the capstone design project.”
A professor in the UGA College of Engineering since 2014, Pidaparti is a Fellow of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research focuses on design engineering and innovation, computational mechanics, drug delivery devices, and STEM education.
