Distributing the Capstone Design Experience

This paper describes a curriculum change that does away with a dedicated four-semester hour senior level “capstone” design course, which has been a part of the civil engineering program since the late 1980s. This course has historically satisfied the ABET "Capstone Design Experience". The course is being replaced with a series of elective courses, which have been modified to serve as independent capstone design experiences. An elective course has been developed for each of the sub disciplines for which the department claims to have "depth" according to the ABET criteria. These courses have each been modified to incorporate significant open-ended design experiences that integrate specific knowledge requirements from each of several sub disciplines in civil engineering. The new curriculum requires students to select two of these elective courses from a list of four to satisfy graduation requirements. This paper specifically addresses the changes made to the course in Foundations Engineering to satisfy the ABET criteria and peripherally addresses the changes made to the other three sub discipline courses in Structures, Environmental/Water Resources and Transportation.