A Coding Scheme for Analyzing Capstone Design Reports: Problem and Solution Descriptions

It is desirable that the graduating engineering students possess the skills of formulating and solving engineering problems to design solutions that meet the established requirements. However, the current literature has noticeable gaps pertaining to understanding how the formulation of design problems and establishment of requirements affect the final design solution. The ultimate goal of this research is to understand the influence of the level of detail of problem statement and requirements on the level of detail of final solution. In order to accomplish this goal a coding scheme is developed to systematically code the information in the final design reports from capstone design class collected over a period of ten years from 1999 to 2008. The coded information is used to develop mappings between problem statement and final solution. To this end, this paper describes the scheme for systematically coding the problem statement and final design solution.