Teaching Engineering Design with Practitioner Supervision: A Case Study

The senior level capstone course in the school of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science (CEES) at the University of Oklahoma is co-taught by practitioners and the CEES faculty. The students work in teams on real-world problems, and their work products are evaluated by practicing professional engineers. Recently, a local municipality provided CEES with a real-world, real-time, industrial park development feasibility project. The student teams designed alternative development plans, which were evaluated by the city engineer. The teams then made oral presentations about their plans before the city board, as is commonly done by consulting engineers in practice. Ultimately, the city incorporated certain aspects of each alternative into its final development plan. The money saved by the small municipality on the feasibility study enabled it to actually go forward with development of the industrial park. Use of the real-world, real-time, industry-driven project provided the students with valuable exposure to professional practice, as well as providing important feedback to CEES faculty regarding curriculum content, and allowing CEES the opportunity to be a “good citizen” in the state.