41029 Engineering Research Preparation

Capstone Project is a very special subject, quite unlike any that you will have done previously.

You undertake it in the final session(s) of your studies and it is your opportunity to demonstrate that you can indeed meet the levels of performance expected of a professional engineer. It is a subject in which you will have individual responsibility for the timely completion of a significant engineering project under the guidance of a member of academic staff. You will be expected to do much more than “get something working”. You will be expected to demonstrate a professional level of preparation, planning, execution, testing and documentation. You will be expected to meet a number of strictly enforced milestones and to take considerable initiative in overcoming obstacles. The Capstone Project is our way of determining whether you are ready to graduate. If you miss milestones or submit work that is not of a professional standard, your course completion may be delayed by one or more sessions.

YOU are responsible for getting your project done on time to an acceptable level. Your supervisor helps you but is not responsible for your performance. In particular, the submission of your final report (also called Thesis or Dissertation) is the equivalent of a final exam in a subject.

The Capstone Project has important educational objectives. Although each project is different and the relative emphasis will vary, the subject will involve you in:

Integrating knowledge and skills gained in the course as a whole;

Reinforcing and developing competencies that have not been sufficiently emphasized in your choice of subjects or engineering practice to date;

Defining a substantial engineering study or design task and carrying it to completion within a specified time and to a professional standard;

Completing a comprehensive written report that places the project in context, defines its objectives, and describes the work done and the resulting conclusions or recommendations;

Bridging the gap between your undergraduate studies and your professional future, and demonstrating professional competencies and capabilities; and

Demonstrating initiative and creativity, and taking pride in the achievement of a difficult task.

Doing the project will assist you in developing many of the attributes expected of a UTS engineering graduate. For example:

Values and social and community contexts - the report should describe the project’s value to society;

Maturity - personal responsibility for the identification and formulation of a substantial problem or objective and writing a major formal report of the work;

Information literacy - projects will extend and further develop information retrieval, analysis, synthesis, argumentation and communication skills;

Problem posing and solving - projects will identify a significant engineering problem and describe a solution to that problem;

Management skills - project management, self-management and time-management skills will be needed for the completion and reporting of a substantial project within an agreed timeframe;

Technical expertise - application of design method, technical expertise and research skills to a real, substantial and complex problem to which the solution is not known in advance; and

Academic literacy, numeracy, oral comprehension and presentation skills - formal reporting, presentation and language skills will be developed by the requirement of writing a comprehensive, formal, structured report, correctly employing technical, mathematical and non-technical terminology.