'Senior Design Challenge' Fosters Collaboration

Last week, the application for the new course Engineering Sciences 15, “Senior Design Challenge” went live on its website. Taught by design thinking lecturer Eugene Korsunskiy, “Senior Design Challenge” is a two-term capstone course available to seniors this winter and spring. With an expected class of 20 seniors, the course will sort students from a variety of academic backgrounds into interdisciplinary teams to design solutions to real-world challenges, Korsunskiy said.

“Senior Design Challenge” is one of seven projects that were awarded one-year pilot funding for this academic year through a Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning’s experiential learning seed grant. Since fall 2015, DCAL has sponsored over 30 experiential learning programs. This year, it received project submissions from 20 divisions and departments at the College.

According to Thayer project development Ashley Manning '17, “Senior Design Challenge” will provide a sense of closure for seniors at the College. By applying knowledge and critical thinking to a field, collaborating with an external partner and producing well-developed solutions, students will change how they conceptualize the purpose of learning, Manning said.

“This course really gives an opportunity to apply so much of what a liberal arts education entails on the field, and I think that is what makes it exciting,” Manning said. “You get closure, but you also get to build a bridge in terms of understanding how you move the classroom learning into the real world.”

Student applications to the Senior Design Challenge are due October 31, and project proposals from faculty and staff are being accepted now.

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