The Importance of Alumni in Industry for Engineering Management Capstone Senior Design

Recently, the Engineering Management Department at the Missouri University of Science and Technology launched a more traditional capstone senior design class. The class was to be launched during the fall 2009 semester after much preparation, planning, and relationship developing with potential industry partners. However, the Fall Semester 2008 ABET accreditation visit and the possibility of a cited weakness with specific reference to an inadequate capstone senior design experience, required the department to immediately offer the class during the spring 2009 semester. Fortunately the department was able to contact a manufacturing company where one of our outstanding alumni was employed and quickly developed viable capstone senior design projects. The department subsequently partnered with the same company for three consecutive semesters. This paper discusses how this particular partner has contributed to the department\u27s continuous improvement efforts as required by ABET