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A transitional step in engineering education is the capstone design experience, which ideally emphasizes all phases of product realization as well as positive team dynamics. This paper describes an assessment and planning exercise used by capstone design instructors at the University of Idaho for the last five years. The exercise is based on Goldratt's theory of constraints and serves as a barometer of student preparation and team development in our yearlong capstone design course. Results are presented in a graphical "prerequisites tree" that guides course sequencing. Prerequisite Trees were found to be quite similar from year to year. Items at the bottom of the tree, requiring initial attention, are not technical and are not generally projectdependent. These items tend to be personal and inter-personal issues, including self-learning skills, well-founded self-confidence, appreciation for diverse skill sets, and strong oral/written communication. The process of developing a classwide Prerequisites Tree during the first week of class underscores the importance of these non-technical issues and motivates proactive behavior in project teams. The Prerequisites Tree also provides a tool for monitoring individual and team development, suggesting timely interventions appropriate for any large engineering project.

Traditional engineering graduate programs focus on coursework and thesis research, which may or may not adequately develop students' professional skills for engineering positions in industry. This paper describes an alternative graduate program developed at the University of Idaho called the Idaho Engineering Works (IEWorks). IEWorks is focused on developing leadership, creativity, communication, and time management skills in addition to traditional course and thesis work. This paper compares the IEWorks experience to other student experiences using surveys of current and future graduate students, alumni, and faculty. The results of the surveys suggest the increased workload in IEWorks interferes with thesis research and coursework. However, the data also suggests the professional skills developed in the program are highly valued by the majority of the graduates and offset the additional workload.

Increasing power and I/O demands in HDI (high density interconnect) components coupled with the industry-wide conversion to lead-free products has introduced additional risk for solder joint reliability (SJR) of BGA (ball grid array) Flip-Chip electronic packages. One particular concern is SJR under mechanical shock (dynamic bend) loading. While leaded alloys provided good performance in shock for many years due to the unparalleled ability of lead’s slip systems to absorb the energy in shock events, lead-free alloys cannot provide the same benefit. To mitigate this risk, better approaches for understanding damage propagation are needed to enable better design to limit and reduce the SJR risk during shipping and end-user handling. To this end, a characterization study is undertaken to monitor damage progression at the second-level interconnect in BGA’s on flip-chip electronic packages during mechanical shock loading. The study uses a board-level, strain-monitoring approach plus the dye and peel failure analysis technique to track the initiation and propagation of solder joint cracks under loading. The approach being used differs from conventional reliability testing in that both design and load variables are used to quantify damage growth and strain response to bridge the understanding of design feature impact to traditional reliability testing. The scope of the study includes investigating the impact of such factors as package placement, board layout, and enabling load on the monitored board strain and the damage propagation observed. From this study, directions and design guidelines for improving solder joint reliability of future BGA’s on flip-chip electronic packages under mechanical shock loading conditions are proposed.

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