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ENG senior capstone presentations build real-world confidence
By Tim Stoddard
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| At last year’s senior project conference, Dawn Janssen (ENG’02) presents her research in biomedical engineering. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
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It’s become a rite of passage for BU’s budding engineers:
with two weeks to go before diploma day, every ENG senior takes a turn
at the podium in the Photonics Center presenting his or her senior design
project to several hundred scientists, engineers, and students. The conference,
which takes place on May 2, is the culminating moment of a nine-month
research project that is now a mandatory part of the ENG degree program.
The event has the look and feel of a professional conference, attracting
alumni and representatives from industry and academia, as well as scores
of juniors anticipating the year ahead.
“
It’s pretty impressive what the students can do today,” says
Solomon Eisenberg, an ENG associate professor of biomedical engineering
(BME) and associate dean of undergraduate programs. “They can present
a tremendous amount of information in a short amount of time. It’s
polished and well rehearsed, and by-and-large the quality is on a par
with professional national meetings — maybe even better.”
Since
September, seniors in the four ENG departments have been working independently
or in groups to design creative solutions to real-world
problems that span the engineering spectrum. Some of the teams go to
work for a local company, others conduct research in a BU laboratory,
while others invent devices that do everything from scaring away pesky
crows to sending tourists into space. While diverse in nature, all the
projects are meant to hone communication skills with a dose of real-life
experience.
“
If ever there was a time when engineers were relegated to a back room
and didn’t have to write well or speak well, that time is long
gone,” Eisenberg says. “Today’s engineers need to be
entrepreneurs, technological innovators, and communicators. The ability
to make coherent arguments about your ideas is the ability to get them
funded.”
While some ENG departments have included independent research
projects for nearly two decades, it is within only the past five years
that all
four branches incorporated the senior projects and conference presentations
into the degree program. The move was prompted in part by the Accreditation
Board for Engineering and Technology, which in the 1990s began to require “capstone
design experiences” in all undergraduate programs. “Oral
communication skills have always been important for engineers,” says
Eisenberg, “but only recently have they been recognized as tools
for advancing an engineering career.”
The senior project is not
a hurdle reserved just for the best ENG students, Eisenberg says, because “it
is part and parcel of what people do in industry and graduate school.
It is extremely important to be able
to articulate your ideas, sum up your progress, and present to an audience
that may not all be experts in your field.”
But after three years
of rigorous course work that focuses on technical excellence, the shift
to a design project, where students chart their
own courses and set their own deadlines, is a sea change for some seniors. “We’ve
had students with low GPAs, 2.2s and 2.3s, end up first in the class
at the senior project conference,” says Kenneth Lutchen, a BME
professor and chairman of the department. “Many of the students
don’t like structured classes. Once they can be creative and pursue
something they’re interested in, they just blossom.” On the
other hand, he adds, many students with high GPAs struggle when they
no longer have clearly defined assignments and exams.
It’s a daunting
task for many seniors, who are also juggling other classes and planning
for life after graduation. “It looms for the
entire year, because you have all this other course work too,” says
biomedical engineering student Justin Voigt (ENG’03). “You’re
torn because you love the research, and you want to do it, but at the
same time, you have obligations in other classes and you’re still
a student. It’s the balance that makes it tough and fun at the
same time.”
But the majority of ENG alumni who have been through
the capstone process say that it is a valuable experience. “I can’t
tell you the number of alumni who’ve come back to tell me, ‘After
I graduated, I was never scared again of giving an oral presentation,’” says
Lutchen. That boost of confidence marks a cross-over into the professional
world. “There’s something transformative about taking an
idea from concept, working on it, and formally presenting a year’s
worth of work in 10 minutes,” says Eisenberg. “It really
focuses the mind on how to get things presented efficiently and effectively.”
Confidence
often is not the only result of the experience: many students also walk
away from the conference with job prospects. “Throughout
the day, you’ll have companies pulling students aside to line up
interviews,” says Lutchen. “It’s not unusual for a
student to get a job offer following this talk.” More than 60 companies
attended the biomedical engineering talks last year, he says, and many
of them are not there simply to recruit young talent. Often the representatives
are taking notes from the students, engaging with them as colleagues
rather than up-and-coming stars in the field.
Seeing that interaction
can be transformative for parents in the audience as well. In many ways,
the senior project shows them how far their sons
and daughters have come at Boston University. “It’s one thing
to go to graduation and watch your kid wear a nice gown and march with
5,000 other kids,” says Lutchen. “It’s another thing
to watch him or her stand up in front of a lot of scientists and engineers
and blow away the audience with what they did during their senior project.
That to me would be one of the proudest moments as a parent.”
25
April 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations