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CE Home > Alumni Resources > Capstone Design
Teach in our Capstone Design Course
The Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota invites you to help educate future engineers by volunteering as a practitioner-mentor in the Capstone Design course. The purpose of this course, required of all seniors, is to provide a realistic experience by integrating basic material learned during the civil engineering undergraduate program to address real-life design problems at the feasibility level. We have found that real-world projects sponsored by local industry result in some of the best experiences for our student designers.
In addition to the faculty instructor, there is one practitioner-mentor for every four to five students. The practitioner-mentor presents a problem statement for a design project to be solved. The students then form teams of four or five to work with the individual practitioner-mentors to address the design problems at the feasibility level. The students meet with their practitioner-mentor once per week at a place chosen by the mentor, e.g. his or her office. They also hold class meetings with the instructor once or twice per week.
The end product of this course is a design project report and a presentation made by each student team to the class, practitioner-mentors, the instructor, and the engineering community.
The mentors receive CEUs for their efforts, and a recognition plaque at the annual awards ceremony of the Civil Engineering Department.
To participate as a practioner-mentor, contact Prof. Heinz Stefan, chair of the Capstone Design Committee (612-625-2810).
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