OVERVIEW

The SUCCEED project entitled Vertically Integrated Design was meant to explore the possibilities of mixing first year engineering students with engineering seniors in a capstone design course as a means of providing the freshmen with an early introduction to design and with an early appreciation for the direction in which their basic engineering courses were leading. A secondary goal of the project was to expand the program to students in the sophomore and junior years to achieve a full “vertical ” integration of the design course and process, making it a central component of the academic program throughout the student’s academic tenure. The experiment, after starting very successfully in the above mentioned direction, was considerably broadened to encompass the concept of multi-disciplinary (horizontal integration) design teaming and to include a component of international cooperation. The Vertically Integrated Design Project at Virginia Tech initially involved the Aerospace &amp