BXA Seminar V: Capstone Project Production

Catalog description

The BXA Capstone gives BXA students the opportunity to demonstrate the extent of their interdisciplinary work over the course of their academic career. The Capstone should include elements that span the student's CFA and SCS concentrations (for BCSA students), CFA and DC concentrations (for BHA students), CFA and MCS concentrations (for BSA students), or CFA concentration and engineering major (for EA additional major students). The project can be either a scholarly or creative endeavor, and may take one of many possible forms (e.g., a written thesis, a compilation of creative work or works, an experiment and report, a computer program or animation, etc.). The BXA Capstone sequence covers both semesters of a student's senior year. In the fall, students are enrolled in 52-401 BXA Seminar IV: Capstone Project Research (9 units), which meets weekly to discuss strategies for managing research, planning the project, and larger theoretical issues related to interdisciplinary work. At the end of the fall course, students will have produced a Capstone Project proposal, an annotated bibliography, and multiple versions of their project pitch. In the spring, students enroll in 52-402 BXA Seminar: Capstone Project Production (9 units), which has no required classroom time. Instead, students spend the semester doing the research and foundational work necessary for the project, as well as meeting with their faculty and BXA advisors as they create their Capstone Project and prepare to present it at the annual Meeting of the Minds Undergraduate Research Symposium held each May. The BXA Capstone sequence is for students in their last two semesters before graduation.