Multidisciplinary Computer Science Design Projects
Ken Alford · 2020
By its very nature, engineering represents an integrative and multidisciplinary experience.In their senior year, students majoring in computer science at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York are required to take two multidisciplinary senior project design courses.Each course is 3.0 credit hours with a 0.5 credit lab.These courses are part of an ABETaccredited computer science program.Throughout the year faculty members from several engineering departments gather information on suitable multidisciplinary senior design projects.Project customers range from Army research programs to inter-collegiate design competitions to local projects that benefit one or more campus organizations.This paper outlines how computer science multidisciplinary senior design projects are organized and conducted in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.It discusses, in turn, the structure, course content, sample projects, objectives, process, assessment, successes, challenges, and lessons learned that are associated with these multidisciplinary student projects. StructureWith few exceptions, all computer science senior design projects are multidisciplinary.The project teams include students from one or more of the following engineering disciplines: computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, systems engineering, environmental engineering, and information systems engineering.This enables student teams to analyze problems from several viewpoints.These differing perspectives usually result in a more thorough, and in some cases, more innovative design and implementation.The senior design project for students enrolled in the computer science major is a two-semester design, build and test experience obtained through two courses -CS407A, Computer Systems Design I, and CS408A, Computer Systems Design II.CS407A is taken by seniors during the fallThe views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government.