The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) has voted a paper by Stephen Laguette, lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, as one of the five best in its Design in Engineering Education Division. Laguette will present the paper, Integration of Industry Partners into a Capstone Design Program, during the Society’s annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA, June 22-25.

Laguette's paper addresses the development and integration of an Industry Partner program into UCSB’s Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design program. (In the Capstone Design program, senior engineering students work for a year in teams, under the direction of faculty advisors, tackling engineering design projects.) The paper covers issues such as recruitment, selection of appropriate projects, project communication and reporting, and intellectual property, with examples of past and current projects.

The objective of the Industry Partner program in the department is to let students develop practical and meaningful projects in an industrial-type real world environment. The program also provides an easy entrance for interested companies to become involved with university. Prior to coming to UCSB, Laguette held executive R&D management positions with a number of medical device companies; he holds more than ten US patents, in a variety of surgical fields.

(To learn more about the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Captone Design Program, please click here.)