March / April 2004

Senior Capstone Course: BE 487

By: Hope Croskey, P.E.,
Career Resource Center Coordinator

2003 Class Front: Julia Flajole, Jennifer Morgan, Adam Eisele, and Nick Tipper Middle: Corin Malzahn, Julie Rochowiak, Marisa Skillman, Elizabeth Vultaggio Back: Amanda Haleen, Lisa Lozier, Michael Laur, Jason Buhlman, Joshua Brood, Ian Radtke, Maureen Beck, Amy Silder

In BE 487—Biosystems Design Project, the senior design capstone course, students work in teams on development, evaluation and selection of design alternatives, and completion of a detailed engineering design that was conceptualized in the preceding course, BE 485. Some teams build a prototype and test it. Athletic Armor (Tolam Nguyen, Tim Long, W. Reid Shepard and Andy Bender) are designing modifications to current football helmet padding systems to reduce oblique impact forces along the head, jaw and face. Their final design will incorporate a viscoelastic layer within the helmet padding system to absorb the shearing forces. Teams present documents that might be used to solicit bids from contractors. The projects are diverse, but they have a common theme: they all reflect “systems thinking” by requiring the incorporation of all interconnected issues impacting the problem, including critical biological constraints. Each team has its own technical faculty advisor(s), as well as an industry sponsor who acts as an advisor on technical matters. At the completion of the work, projects are presented to a jury of licensed professional engineers and engineering faculty for evaluation. The course was taught by Professor John B. Gerrish (who recently retired) and Keith Tinsey. Professor Gary VanEe, P.E. and Hope Croskey, P.E., specialist, are the current instructors.

At the end of spring semester, the students truly get to “showcase” what they have learned--during the annual Biosystems Showcase, which includes a luncheon, senior student design presentations, an opportunity for students to meet with industry representatives, a reception, and a dinner. The 2004 Biosystems Showcase is scheduled for April 22 at the Kellogg Center.

See also: 2004 Biosystems Engineering Senior Designs

This article first appeared in Currents Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 2 (winter 2004), published by the College of Engineering at MSU

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April 6, 2004