Current Practices in Engineering Capstone Education: Further Results from a 2005 Nationwide Survey

This work further details a survey of engineering capstone design courses nationwide conducted in 2005. The survey is a follow-up to one conducted in 1994 by Todd et al., reprising the questions of its predecessor plus requesting additional information. We implemented the 2005 survey online, with requests sent via email to representatives of all ABET-accredited engineering programs (1724 programs at 350 institutions, as of 2004). The online survey yielded a strong response, with 444 programs from 232 institutions submitting responses. This corresponds to a 26% response rate from engineering programs and a 66% response rate from institutions. This paper focuses on the additional questions in the 2005 survey that provide further insight about the current state of engineering capstone education. In particular, the paper discusses results relating to course management, student deliverables and evaluation, program funding, and perceived capstone course success