PETROLEUM ENGINEERING CAPSTONE PROJECT TO SATISFY ENGINEERING ACCREDITATION CRITERIA

All engineering programs offered by Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) in Malaysia must satisfy Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) requirements to receive accreditation. Therefore, The Department of Petroleum Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS has designed its curriculum and delivery methods according to the requirements. One of the courses offered to meet these criteria is capstone project known as Field Development Plan (FDP). The aims of the capstone project implementation is to provide students with a realistic design experience that allows them to integrate and apply basic disciplinary materials that they have gained in other engineering courses to synthesize a complex engineering problem. However, the universally agreed-upon operational definition of the capstone project does not exist since there are many variations between engineering programs. The focus of this paper is to share experience on the implementation of a capstone project for petroleum engineering students that aligns with the engineering accreditation requirements. This paper highlights the engineering accreditation criteria, optimal capstone project elements, project preparation, practical experience and assessment activities which may cultivate students’ ability in many of the proposed accreditation criteria. The designed structure focuses on what students can actually do or perform at the end of the program. The concept of a capstone project should be a complex open-ended problem that enables the students to work in multi-disciplinary team. This provides opportunities to the students to apply professional ethics that emphasis on project management, the safety, health and welfare of the public. Also, the importance of project preparation which include proper planning and coordination to provide optimum student’s learning experience are thoroughly discussed in this paper. This real case problem-based project may prepare students with practical experience in solving problems and can also be used as a basis for job employment. In conclusion, the capstone project that incorporate optimal elements with proper preparation in coordination, with the other three traditional elements lead to more effective execution. The assessments of the project were designed based on the ability of the students to achieve the preset course outcomes after completion of the course that meet the industry is the key to meet the complexity of the engineering accreditation requirements.