Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering

North Dakota State University

Capstone Evaluation

The capstone experience is used as a major assessment instrument in evaluating the program outcomes.  The students take the capstone class during the spring semester. The Industrial Engineering and Management Capstone requires concurrent enrollment in IME485, Industrial and Manufacturing Facility Design and IME456, Program and Project Management.  Industrial Engineering and Management Capstone student learning outcomes are tied to The ABET a-k outcomes as is the case for all other courses.  The assessment process for capstone is not solely a self-assessment process.

The majority of Capstone learning outcome are met through participation of students in in-class projects as well as real-life (Capstone) projects conducted on behalf industry clients.  The in-class projects are selected in a way so they can be helpful to students in conducting their Capstone projects. 

The development of the Capstone project document is an on-going process.  The document is the final product that each student team produces.  In addition to regularly scheduled class meetings, during the semester the instructor meets with each project team five times, each time about 90 minutes.  During each meeting, the instructor evaluates the project report and progress and provides feedback to the students.  The final Capstone document grade will reflect not only the quality of the final document, but also meeting deadlines to complete various project-related tasks.  At the end of the semester, the project teams evaluate and report the performance and contribution of their team members in developing the Capstone document.  Capstone clients provide feedback on the quality and usefulness of the Capstone documents.