Draft

Manual
Capstone Project

Content
1. Background / History...........................................................................................................2
2. Purpose and Objective of the Capstone Project Approach.................................................2
3. Characteristics of a Capstone Project..................................................................................3
4. Timing and Organisation.....................................................................................................4
5. Setting of the Capstone Projects.........................................................................................5
6. Introducing Capstone Projects............................................................................................5
7. Potential Capstone Project Structure..................................................................................6
8. Project team........................................................................................................................6
9. Results of Capstone Projects...............................................................................................6
The Capstone Project report...................................................................................................7
Capstone Project Poster.........................................................................................................7
Capstone Project Presentation...............................................................................................7
10. Capstone Project Assessment..........................................................................................7
11. Glossary............................................................................................................................8

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 1

1. Background / History
 The curriculum of the D4 Program specialization of 1 Year (Semester 7&8) of Renewable
Energy (PSRE) defines a learning process that includes a 3-month internship and final
task, together totalling 9 credits in semester 8.

 During their D3 studies all students of the PSRE did already carry out an internship
program and final project.

 The discussions with Indonesian partners of about the curriculum of the D4

Specialization Program for 1 Year of Renewable Energy curriculum with Indonesian
partners and by feedback from the Swiss University of Applied Sciences (UAS) involved
showed it became obvious that the time during provided in the semester 8 will be very
tight for the implementation of internship and final task (“Tugas Akhir”).

 Furthermore, Indonesian partners as well as Swiss UAS questioned whether it was still
necessary to produce “hardware” during thein the so-called final project, and if it would
not be better to but instead concentrate on the engineering part work of the project
(assessment, analysis, solution finding).

 The Directorate of Vocational Studies encouraged the idea of finding a feasible solution
replacing internship and final task in line with the direction of the Ministry of Education
and Culture "Studying outside the campus" and the new drive to introduce Project
Based Learning (PBL).

 Based on the support by the Directorate of Vocational Studies the RESD project
conducted visits at two Polytechnics to better understand the challenges caused by
internship and final task. Latter a three-day workshop with heads of departments and
program study was conducted to explore opportunities of a new approach and discuss a
potential frame of a new approach.

 On the third of October 2022 the Director VOKASI of the Ministry of Education and
Culture, Director Beny Bandanadjaja, agreed to combine internship and final task into a
Capstone Project as proposed by this manual, resulting in 9 SKS.

This manual explains the Capstone Project concept and shall provide a basic reference for
the implementation of student capstone projects. As part of the continuous improvement
process, this document will need to be up-dated regularly.

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 2

2. Purpose and Objective of the Capstone Project Approach
The student’s capstone project will replace internship and final task.
The director for academics underlined that the curriculum does not need to be adjusted for
the moment; potentially necessary adjustments can take place during the first revision of the
curriculum.
The main purpose of the Capstone Project is to support students in:
 understanding and applying learned engineering processes by solving real
engineering problems from clients1
 assessing the problem systematically, identifying the project goal and splitting it up
into achievable project objectives
 planning and organising a project in a structured manner
 further developing soft skills such as multidisciplinary teamwork, communication
with clients and superiors, taking responsibility, working in a structured and
disciplinary manner, and recording and presenting data and results in an
understandable form for the client.
Besides this educational purpose the Capstone Projects have ample “positive side effects”.
These “side effects” are serving the following objectives:
 Deepening the polytechnic staff’s understanding of the RE sector in general and
challenges of the sector and its clients in particular
 Strengthening the relations between the polytechnics and RE related environment
 Providing potential solutions for a real problem in the industry or of clients
 Supporting energy saving measures and the introduction of RE generation in industry,
society, institutions, and private households
 Providing job opportunities and business ideas to students

3. Characteristics of a Capstone Project

1. Capstone projects must be implemented in close cooperation with clients (industry,
society, institutions or even Polytechnics).
2. The topic of the capstone project can be proposed by a client, (a student, or the
polytechnic). The Polytechnic then must ensure that there is a project coach with
sufficient experience and know-how to support the student team during the project.
Only if a capable and suitable coach can be found the Polytechnic can approve the
project. Selection is done by the Polytechnic!
3. The topic must reflect a real problem and the results shall help solving the problem.

1
A client can be a company working in the RE sector, or a company, a private person, institution, civil society,
or organisation keen to understand its energy consumption patterns and looking for potential savings and/or
RE solutions.

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 3

 4. The problem of the capstone project needs to have a thematic connection with what
the students have learned during their studies.
5. The capstone project cannot be urgent (there is no guarantee that the capstone
project is successful and can deliver within a defined time frame).
6. The "products" of the capstone project are posters and project presentations, and a
project report including technical designs where required (only in exceptional cases
"hardware").
7. The capstone projects shall be carried out by multidisciplinary student-teams (only in
few exceptions by a single student).
8. The students are responsible for capstone projects and work independently in teams
with the support of a project coach and in collaboration with the client.
9. The students determine the project objectives in collaboration with clients and
coaches.
10. The students elaborate the project ToR in accordance with Polytechnic templates and
guidance of the coach. The ToR define the capstone project frame and includes:
a. Project background
b. Project objectives
c. Project scope with limitations
d. Working relations (roles & responsibilities)
e. Project specific time schedule that considers the deadlines given by the
Polytechnic.
The ToR will be signed by the students, the coach and the client. The Polytechnic
will not guaranty for the fulfilment of the project objectives, as the students are
still in a learning process. Nonetheless the students and coach will work to
achieve the objectives if not only for reputation of the Poly.
11. The students are responsible for the project management, project content,
communication, and project results.
12. The client must agree to cooperate with the students and to allow access to required
data and locations to enable the students to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the
situation.
13. The coach has the responsibility to support and where needed to guide the students.
She/he must safeguard the reputation of the Poly and to ensure that only good
quality results are presented to the client.
14. The result of the student’s work will be assessed by the project coach. Clients,
experts, and peers, are to be invited to give their opinion regarding the process of the
project work and the fulfilment of the project objectives.
15. The quality of the capstone project’s results must be ensured by the project coach, as
low-quality results will damage the reputation of the polytechnic and its graduates.
Potentially low-quality projects need to be withdrawn.

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 4

4. Timing and Organisation
1. Topic selection and team composition shall take place in the 7th semester (1st
semester of the RE specialization course). The department must ensure that there
are sufficient projects for all student project teams.
2. The student project teams shall be composed in accordance with guidelines by the
polytechnics. Minimal guidelines are:
3. teams shall be balanced, strong and weaker students shall be joining in the same
team
4. where possible mixed in gender
5. team members shall have different technical background in their D3 studies
6. The first 15 weeks of semester 8, students shall be given 2.5 days per week to work
on the capstone project, followed by a final block of 3 weeks full time, assigned to
completion and presentation of the capstone project. This is a total of 420 hours,
with a credit weight of 9 credits.
7. During the first 15 weeks it is recommended that the capstone teams are working at
least half of the time at the Poly and in the team on their project. This provides the
coaches ample opportunity to supervise the teamwork and to provide support where
required. Each team shall choose its Poly work-day at the outset of the project cycle.
8. The final block of 3 weeks shall provide sufficient time to finalise analyses, prepare
the poster and presentation, and finalise the report. During the final block the teams
shall mainly work at the Poly.
9. Project work is rated higher by credits than internships. The introduction of capstone
projects therefore results in 140 hours free in semester 8. This time shall be invested
for other subjects and can be used for visits to companies, power plants and other
subject-related places/institutions with the entire class.
10. The polytechnic must ensure the availability of facilities and infrastructure in the
form of adequate student rooms to work during capstone projects.

5. Setting of the Capstone Projects

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 5

The semester 7 started in 2022 beginning of October. It is assumed that it lasts until
beginning of March 2023. The presentations of the capstone projects by the students will
therefore take place last week of July/beginning of August 2023.
The capstone project can follow the example of Swiss UAS student project structures:

6. Introducing Capstone Projects

This chapter is hinting on a few points that should be remembered for the introduction of
student capstone projects.
1. The capstone projects replace both, internship, and final task!
2. The Polys should start with projects of limited complexity. It is important that also
the coaches can learn how to apply the new approach and can learn from each
another.
3. At the beginning (first 1 – 3 intakes) several groups can do similar projects – but not
the same – like that the coaches can easy share experience and compare results.
4. The arrangement of the Capstone Project can differ from Poly to Poly – it is
recommended to have it over a longer period of time with at least one final project
week.

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 6

7. Potential Capstone Project Structure
The structure below is derived from the project management training:

8. Capstone project team

To reach the project objectives the project team has to work together. This means:
a. all work towards the same project objectives
b. the team needs to divide the work in different specific tasks
c. the team-members work on those specific tasks
d. one of the team-members has to be the team leader who is coordinating the
work of the individual team members and who ensures that all individual
work is properly interfacing
e. regular team meetings are used to ensure all tasks can be combined to the
final result
f. team-members can/shall help each another to ensure compatibility of the
different tasks and the quality of the whole.

9. Results of Capstone Projects

The main result of the Capstone Project is a thorough analysis of the client’s problem and a
derived recommendation for further procedure to solve the problem. The results are
assembled and presented in:

 A technical report
 A poster
 A presentation to the client and the other students

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 7

The Capstone Project report
The common structure for a scientific paper is IMRaD (Introduction, Methodology, Results
and Discussion). In the case of the capstone project the students should not write a scientific
paper, but a technical report. For a technical report the structure must be adapted to the
project structure. A possible structure for a technical report could be:

 Introduction
 Description of initial situation
 Methodology (e.g. measurements, evaluation criteria)
 Results and discussion
 Recommendations for client

Capstone Project Poster

Each capstone team must prepare a poster that gives an overview about the project and the
project results. The learning goal for the poster is, that the students learn to identify the
essence of their project. For the Polys the posters are a very good support, to explain future
clients, what the content of a student project could be.

Capstone Project Presentation

Each capstone team must prepare a presentation explaining the project, the approach, task
division, data collected and results of the project. Such presentation could include among
others:
 Description of client project goal and derived project objectives of the team
 Data collection, measuring methodology, data analysis
 Options considered, selection of best option
 Recommendations for the client
 Learnings, highlights, hurdles to share with fellow students
The total presentation time is 25 minutes for each group, all team members shall take a turn.
It is recommended that the number of prepared slides shall not exceed one slide per two
minutes presentation (e.g., maximum 12 slides). It is recommended to expect from the
students to explain all the content, that is visualized on the slides. The students must learn
that it is important to focus on the main issues.

10. Capstone Project Assessment

The assessment of the capstone project shall be mainly done by the project coach, as the
project coach has also insight to the surrounding conditions of the project (e.g. difficulties in
getting data or answers from the client, difficulties in the team).
The project coach peers, the client and (if available) experts from industry can support the
assessment.
It is recommended to do a group assessment. An individual assessment of team members
would influence the teamwork, so it should only be done in very special situations (e.g. one

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 8

team member did not contribute at all, one team member did not show at the
presentation).
The different aspects to be considered are:
 project content
 project organisation
 project communication
The assessment frame should be developed in the training of trainers in January 2023.

11. Glossary
Project problem
Project objective
Project goal
Will be developed in the frame of WS preparation.

9.12.2022
YZ / HS

Draft: Capstone Project Manual 20221209 9