Guidelines for the Capstone Project
Guidelines for the Capstone Project (Audio)
Capstone project is a 3 credit course. The steps to do capstone project are as follows:
The following requirements must be met before registering for EM 696 course
- Minimum GPA requirement - Must be above 3.0
- Minimum 15 number of credits should be completed
Step 1: Select an advisor from the EM program or MME department.
Step 2: Register for EM 696 course. Usually students take 1 credit of EM 696 for writing the proposal and 2 credits for conducting the project and writing the report. These 2 credits can be spread out over two semesters by registering for 1 credit hour each semester.
Step 3: Select a topic for conducting your project in your area of interest or using the knowledge that you have learned in the courses such as quality engineering, project management, supply chain management, etc. Discuss the topic with your advisor.
Step 4: Form a committee of 3 faculty members. Two members can be from within the department and 1 can be from other departments like College of Science and Engineering, College of Business or a professor with whom you did an elective course.
Step 5: Get approval of committee members for your capstone project topic.
Step 6: Write a synopsis of the project problem that you are interested in. Approach the professor who will be the chair of the committee and get their concern. If the chair approves your idea you can develop a proposal.
Step 7: The proposal guide lines are posted on a separate link.
Step 8: Once your proposal has been reviewed by your chair, send it to the full committee.
Step 9: Once the committee is comfortable with your proposal, check the availability of the committee members to set up a time for your proposal presentation. Reserve a conference room in ECC building by contacting MME department Office Manager, Sue Pope. Invite the committee through outlook calendar for your preliminary conference.
Step 10: When the date and time are set, go to Graduate studies, talk to Ann Anderson, and get permission to hold a preliminary conference.
Step 11: On the preliminary conference day, get everything ready for the conference such as a projector, laptop, etc. Projector can be checked out from the MME department. Ensure everything is working at least 15 minutes prior to your presentation.
Step 12: You need to present your proposal in 10-15 minutes. The committee will ask you to leave while they deliberate on your proposal. They will decide whether to accept your proposal as is or with change. Then the committee will sign on your preliminary conference approval document.
Step 13: Submit the approved document to the graduate studies. If your proposal is approved you can start working on your capstone project.
Step 14: Typically, international students take 2 semesters to complete their capstone project. If they don’t have work experience they can work in some industry. For that they can get 11 months full time CPT on the basis of capstone project credits that they have been registered for. You have to register for at least 1 credit every semester to maintain your status as an international student.
Step 15: Two to three months before you plan to do a final conference, you should send a draft of your capstone project report to your chair and the committee.
Step 16: Once you obtain feedback and capstone project is ready to a certain level, talk to your committee chair and schedule a final conference.
Step 17: Again Ann Anderson from Graduate Studies should give the permission to hold a final conference. You need to find a room and send out an email to the MEM list serve and invite other students to your final presentation.
Step 18: Typically there are 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes for questions and answers.
Step 19: The committee then decides whether you pass or fail. If you pass then you are good to graduate. The committee will sign off. You can submit the final conference approval document to Graduate Studies.
Step 20: The final step is to format the final report based on university guidelines. Faculty in the department will not spend time in formatting. You can find the university style formatting style guide in the bookstore. Graduate Studies can also guide you regarding the formatting.
Step 21: Once the document is formatted, you need to get cotton paper sheets (3-4 sheets) and get the signatures of all the committee members on the approval page of your final capstone project report.
Step 22: Your capstone project report is bound and cataloged in the SCSU library.
