Capstone Project
MSE 491/2, Winter 2012 and Spring 2012
"You will learn nothing new in this class," a perfectly ambiguous summary of my capstone class that spanned two quarters of my senior year. We didn't learn any new technical information-- any discoveries were none too large for our materials science britches, but we did learn how to apply our technical knowledge in an industry setting-- and how you apply information is just as important as how much you gather. Our project involved proposing a solution to inclusions found in Nitinol stent valves. Using our prior knowledge along with our knowledge of research techniques, we completed a background investigation of the problem-- what is the manufacturing process of the stents, what's the composition, what is the most probable source of inclusions? The seond half of our project was spent creating and refining a solution. Although our solution involved laser deposition and a reworking of the manufacuturing process was too unpractical for the company's needs, we gained points in novlety.
Below is our final presentation which we presented to our class and was invited to present to the board at the company. To the left is a Gantt chart that we used to track the progress of our project during both quarters. As one of the lead task managers it was my duty to keep track of this chart and provide input on the flow of our work. I found that our decision to delegate tasks based on skill (mine being organization, as opposed to technical knowledge/research) greatly helped focus our attention and divide our time efficiently. This class was another lesson (my final one at the university) on the dynamics of group work.
Below is our final presentation which we presented to our class and was invited to present to the board at the company. To the left is a Gantt chart that we used to track the progress of our project during both quarters. As one of the lead task managers it was my duty to keep track of this chart and provide input on the flow of our work. I found that our decision to delegate tasks based on skill (mine being organization, as opposed to technical knowledge/research) greatly helped focus our attention and divide our time efficiently. This class was another lesson (my final one at the university) on the dynamics of group work.