Operations research capstone course: A project-based process of discovery and application

The US Air Force Academy offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in Operations Research (OR). Our “OR-affiliated” faculty includes members from the Departments of Mathematical Sciences, Management, Computer Science, and Economics and Geography. The OR capstone course comes in the students' final semester and is a highlight of their academic experience. The course evolved from a case study-driven course to one in which students serve as OR consultants for a variety of clients in the Air Force and Colorado Springs communities. In addition to the outstanding educational experience for the students, this course provides a valuable service to our community. In this paper, we discuss how we introduce our students to an OR consulting process through our teaching, guidance, and evaluation. We offer several recent success stories from the course and provide the reader with two spreadsheet-based mini-cases derived from those projects.