Call for Papers

CONFERENCE FORMAT
The goal of the 2012 Capstone Design Conference is to provide a forum for faculty and staff to share ideas about improving and/or starting engineering capstone design courses with strong industry involvement.  To foster meaningful discussion and outcomes, the conference includes interactive panel sessions, poster presentations, workshops, and industry demonstrations.   We welcome faculty, administrators, industry representatives, and students as participants in this engaging conference.

CONFERENCE THEME
The theme of the 2012 conference is Industry Involvement in Capstone Design.  We welcome papers addressing any of the topics listed below or others that fit with the conference theme and have broad interest for the capstone design community.

Industry Involvement in Capstone Design

• Expectations: project scoping, expected results (sponsor, faculty, and students), learning objectives, industry liaison efforts, differences across disciplines in multi-disciplinary teams, etc.
• Funding:  pricing sponsored projects - value achieved versus cost to run, expectations versus cost of project, funding sources, funding structures, etc.
• Intellectual Property:  industry expectations, institutional policies, confidential information, etc.
• Scheduling: alignment of industry timeline and academic calendar, scoping projects given time constraints, coordinating liaison meetings/site visits, managing student time priorities, etc.
• Student Issues: teamwork, expectations, professional communication skills, prerequisites to work on industry sponsored projects, matching skills to project, etc.
• Assessment: formative and summative guidelines, team versus individual, project results versus student learning outcomes, industry involvement with grading, industry versus faculty perceptions, etc.
• Industry Collaboration:  guest speakers, project sponsors/adisors, curriculum advisory boards membersm connected internships and co-ops, benefits to stakeholders, etc..

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PAPERS
Submitted papers are peer reviewed and all accepted papers are included in the conference proceedings.  Instead of following the traditional presentation format, however, all accepted papers are featured in highly interactive poster sessions.  The majority of the conference sessions are conducted as stimulating panel discussions, based on topics drawn in part from the pool of accepted papers.  Associated authors may be invited to participate as panelists for these themed panel discussions.

Logistics regarding paper format and review are below:

• Papers are limited to four pages, including references.
• Papers are to be formatted according to the paper guidelines (Word version, PDF version)
• All submitted papers are peer reviewed.
• Authors submitting papers will beasked to participate in the review process.
• Authors of accepted papers are encouraged to submit revisions based on reviewers' comments.
• Authors of especially high quality papers will be invited to submit full-length manuscripts to a special issue of a journal following the conference.

Submission:  Papers must be submitted through the Conference Management Tool (CMT).   The submission deadline for papers is December 31, 2011.

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WORKSHOPS
Workshops are conducted as 90-minute interactive sessions that foster audience participation. Where possible, workshops are offered twice (likely in back-to-back sessions) to increase attendance opportunities.  We encourage proposals for workshops directed toward the conference theme of industry involvement.

Workshop proposals should not exceed two pages and should contain the information requested in the workshop template.

Submission:  Workshops must be submitted through the Conference Management Tool.  The submission deadline for workshops is December 31, 2011.  

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INDUSTRY ACADEMIA COLLABORATION POSTERS

We invite submissions of poster abstracts that showcase collaborations between industry and academia in Capstone Design.  This poster session will focus on applications of capstone projects and on successful collaborations between academia and industry.

Posters should have at least one non-academic author.  Poster abstracts should include a description of the collaboration, including an explanation of industry involvement, in 300-500 words.  These abstracts will be peer reviewed, and accepted abstracts will appear in the conference proceedings.  There are not academic papers associated with the Industry-Academia Collaboration track.

Poster guidelines and formatting details are given in the poster guidelines(Word version, PDF version).

Submission:  Poster abstracts for the Industry-Academia Collaboration track must be submitted through the  Conference Management Tool and should adhere to the Abstract Template format.  The submission deadline for poster abstracts is March 15, 2012.

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STUDENT PARTICIPATION
We invite submissions for two types of student participation: (1) capstone project posters and (2) student panelists, in connection with the conference theme of industry involvement in capstone design. Details can be found in the call for student participation.  

We intend to cover travel and registration costs for all accepted panelists and at least one student per accepted project team. For nominations for capstone project posters, see the student project nomination form.  For student panelists, see the student panelist nomination form.

Submission: Nominations for student capstone project posters and student panelists must be submitted through the Conference Management Tool. The deadline for student nominations is April 1,  2012. 

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OTHER INVOLVEMENT
We welcome your help to make this conference a rewarding and useful experience for the capstone design community.  Please submit ideas and recommendations, especially regarding industry involvement, to the organizing committee at capstoneconf@gmail.com.

QUESTIONS
Please direct questions about papers, workshops, or other conference areas to the organizing committee at capstoneconf@gmail.com.

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QUICK LINKS

Call for Student Participation

Call for Industry Academia Collaboration Posters

Submit through CMT

CONFERENCE SPONSORS

Sponsor & Exhibitor Flier (pdf)

SPONSORS | EXHIBITORS | ATTENDEES | AUTHORS | STUDENTS