TBA as needed
Welcome to the Computer Science Capstone Design Sequence!! The sequence spans an entire academic years (two semesters) and is based on students working in small teams to complete a real project from a real client under the mentorship of a CS faculty. It is, in essence, a semi-independent software consulting experience, where you have to bring your entire undergraduate skillset together to tackle a challenging larger software problem...must like many of you will be doing in industry after you graduate. Thus, it is truly a "capstone" to your undergraduate training.
In ages past, apprentices were required to create a "master work" to mark the completion of their apprenticeship and to prove their expertise. You should view these projects as your master works, proof that you deserve your CS degree and are readyfor professional practice in the working world. Take advantage of this: really make this a signature effort that you can keep in your portfolio and show off to future clients and employers.
Of course, this is still a class and you team mentor and other CS faculty are still there to guide you in this first realistic project effort. Your relationship with your mentors should evolve in this year, however, shifting from one of student-professor to something closer to a peer relationship of mentor-mentee, reflecting your evolution towards full membership in our community of practice.
The CS Capstone sequence is composed of two courses: CS476-Requirements engineering (2 credits), where projects are selected assigned and moved through the requirements and early design phase; and CS486 Capstone Design (4 credits), which focused around implementation, testing, refinement and delivery of the software to the client.
Need free software? Are you willing to give back and engage with a student team to get it? We are always interested in increasing our pool of potential Capstone sponsors and making connections with new people and companies. If you have a project in mind, or would just like to know more about submitting a challenging software development project for consideration, please visit our Capstone Sponsor Website.
The CS Capstone program has its roots in a larger vision called Design4Practice, which was a complete re-imagining of the form and nature of engineering training led by NAU in the mid-90s. The main themes of D4P center around real-world (vs. invented toy projects), building up teaming and technical communication (vs. only technical) skillsets, and working in multi-disciplinary teams. As a consequence, all engineering programs at NAU have a Capstone sequence which, though it may differ in many implementation details, is shaped by these fundamental themes. To browse through the archival project website for past Capstone projects for not only CS, but for all NAU engineering programs, visit: https://www.ceias.nau.edu/capstone/d4p/