Conference 2026

CONFERENCE FORMAT

The goal of the 2026 Capstone Design Conference is to provide a forum for faculty, staff, students, and industry representatives to share ideas about improving and/or starting engineering capstone design courses.  To foster meaningful discussion and outcomes, the conference includes interactive panel sessions, poster presentations, workshops, and industry demonstrations.  We welcome faculty, administrators, industry representatives, and students as participants in this engaging conference.

CONFERENCE HOST

The conference will be held June 1 to 3, 2026 at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

CONFERENCE TOPICS

We welcome papers and workshops addressing any of the topics listed below or others that have broad interest for the capstone design community. 

  • Expectations: project scoping; anticipated outcomes (for sponsors, faculty, and students); learning objectives; industry liaison efforts; disciplinary differences in multidisciplinary teams; and required course deliverables
  • Assessment: formative and summative evaluation strategies; team versus individual assessment; balancing project outcomes with student learning outcomes; rubrics; aligning grading across disciplines; comparing industry and faculty perspectives; and meeting program standards within multidisciplinary experiences
  • Industry Relationships: balancing educational value and sponsor value; managing expectations versus costs; aligning with industry hiring needs; engaging corporate sponsors; effectively navigating industry expectations with regards to intellectual property; and management of confidential information 
  • Multidisciplinary Collaboration: strategies for intra- and inter-program collaboration; team formation and implementation; and overcoming conflicts and barriers
  • Challenges in the Capstone Classroom: teamwork and communication; aligning skills with project needs; prerequisites to work on industry sponsored projects; and fostering supportive environments for all students

PAPERS

Submissions are peer reviewed and all accepted papers are included in the conference proceedings.  Instead of following the traditional presentation format, all accepted papers are featured in highly interactive poster sessions.  The majority of the conference sessions are conducted as stimulating panel discussions, based on topics drawn in part from the pool of accepted papers.  Associated authors may be invited to participate as panelists for these themed panel discussions.

Logistics regarding paper format and review are:

  • Papers are limited to four pages, including references. 
  • Papers are to be formatted according to the paper guidelines (download paper template). 
  • All submitted papers are peer reviewed.  
  • Authors submitting papers will be asked to participate in the review process.
  • Authors of accepted papers are encouraged to submit revisions based on reviewers' comments. 
  • Authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit full-length manuscripts to a special issue of a journal following the conference.
  • Poster formatting guidelines will be provided to authors of accepted papers. 

WORKSHOPS

Workshops are conducted as 90-minute interactive sessions that foster audience participation.  We encourage proposals for workshops of broad interest to the capstone design community. 

Workshop proposals should not exceed two pages and should contain the information requested in the workshop template (download workshop template).

PANEL SUGGESTIONS

Panels are conducted as 90-minute interactive sessions with a facilitator and a panel of 3-4 experts that foster audience participation.  We encourage suggestions for panels on specific topics of interest to the capstone design community. 

Panel proposals should not exceed two pages and should contain the information requested in the panel template (download panel template).

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Papers, Panels and Workshop suggestions must be submitted through the Conference Management Tool (CMT).  The submission deadline is January 20, 2026. If you have a previous CMT account from a prior conference, you may use your existing login credentials to access CMT (or use the “Forgot your password?” button to recover your account). If you have not used CMT before, you are welcome to create a new account.

STUDENT PARTICIPATION

We look forward to student participation in the poster sessions and on selected panels.  More details about student involvement and nominating student participants will be announced in February 2026.  On a competitive basis, we anticipate offsetting travel and registration costs for students from a wide array of institutions.  

PROFESSIONAL PARTICIPATION

We expect to be able to offer some Travel Support Grants.  The goal of these grants is to encourage attendees who would like to participate in CDC26 but have limited travel funds within their institutions.  More information about this opportunity will be announced in February 2026.

OTHER INVOLVEMENT

We welcome your help to make this conference a rewarding and useful experience for the capstone design community.  Please submit ideas and recommendations directly to the organizing committee at capstoneconf@gmail.com. 

QUESTIONS

Please direct questions about papers, workshops, or other conference areas to the organizing committee at capstoneconf@gmail.com.

 

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.