Cornerstone to Capstone Design: Peer Mentorship in Engineering Design Education

Engineering sketch.

Project Goals

The goal of the project was to strengthen the engineering design sequence curriculum with a peer mentorship program.

Project Activities

The peer mentorship program connects students from ME1670 Freshman design class and the senior year ME4182 Capstone design class. In addition, the Certified Engineering Mentor for Cornerstone to Capstone program incentivizes graduate students to participate, track participation, and serve as bridges between the first year and final year students. 

Artifacts created: 

  • Certified Engineering Mentor for Cornerstone to Capstone (CEMC2) program,  
  • Pre and post-activity prompts to assess: 
  • Student background 
  • Draw student awareness to the progression of their capabilities  
  • Document the impact on core competencies due to curricular intervention strategies,  
  • Thematic analysis of open-ended questions

Student Impact

Over 1,400 students were impacted by this project.

Project Dissemination

This project was shared via an ASEE annual conference paper and a Celebrating Teaching Day poster.

College

College of Engineering

Course Name

ME 1670: Freshman Design Class and ME 4182: Capstone Design Class

Faculty Cohort

2024-2025 Provost Teaching and Learning Initiatives

Raghuram Pucha, Amit Jariwala, and Jonathan Gaines

Raghu Pucha
Amit Jariwala
Jonathan Gaines

The Cornerstone to Capstone collaboration allowed us to not only get feedback on our ideas but also interact with other capstone students to learn about their design journey. These interactions were beneficial in supporting our success both in this class and as future engineers.”

– ME 4182 Student Participant