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Assignments

ASSIGNMENTS DESCRIPTIONS PERCENTAGES FILES
1. Observations, data sources and data reduction assignment Students will be expected to select and read an NBER working paper from a faculty provided list and to prepare a no more than 1000 word paper, performing a critical analysis on the author's choice(s) and use(s) of observations as well as the assumption(s) required by, and conclusion(s) drawn from such observations. 10% (PDF)
2. Redactor role Each student (including the redactor for the week) is asked to provide a not-more-than 300-word comment paragraph (which may include questions to the guest) that directly engages the guest's assigned paper. The redactor then will organize the comments for the guest and produce a 500-750 word executive summary of the students' comments that will be emailed to guest before class. - (PDF)
3. Discussion leader role

For each class, student discussion leader(s) will be assigned to lead the class in a critical analysis of the readings prepared for that session. Similar to the response to the guest paper, each student (including the discussion leader) is asked to provide a not-more-than-300-word-comment paragraph that engages the assigned papers.

The discussion leader should prepare a brief presentation (no more than 5-10 minutes) that should focus on a critical analysis of the readings; and how the readings relate to each other, and to the larger field of ES. This presentation should become more comprehensive as the semester progresses and students are exposed to more material. The discussion leader should then lead the class in a discussion, using the comment paragraphs as a starting point.

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4. Engineering Systems Symposium (ESS) poster presentation and/or research brainstorming session For each TA session, 20 minutes will be allotted to allow each student to share their research plans with their colleagues. We understand that each student will be at a different maturity in their research, and therefore, the 20 minutes can be spent presenting a formal research presentation or conference paper, presenting something like an ESS-poster, or perhaps brainstorming about the student's intended use of tools or methodologies in pursuit of research. This is the chance for each student to seek the feedback and commentary of their peers in a constructive and productive way. -  
5. Book review Students will be expected to prepare brief book reviews of about ~750 words selected from a faculty-provided book list, or books independently suggested by the student and then approved by the faculty. 10% (PDF)
6. Historical roots paper and presentation

Students will work in two-person teams to create a single jointly submitted paper that serves as a review paper, which carefully constructs the connection between a historical root of Engineering Systems and a contemporary methodology in Engineering Systems. Student pairs will construct this connection by both tracing the historical root forward in time to the development of contemporary methodologies and by "backcasting" from the contemporary methodology to its antecedent historical root(s).

Each presentation should teach the findings from the literature review, make use of interesting visualization techniques, and emphasize the contribution to Engineering Systems at large. Each presentation will be allotted 20 minutes (15 for presenting, 5 for Q&A).

 30% (PDF)
7. Systems concepts assignment

Select a Complex Socio-technical System (CSS) of interest to you and in which you have some general domain knowledge. Then:

a) describe the system you have selected so the instructor and staff who may have modest expertise or perhaps none in that domain can have an idea of what you are talking about. Limit your response to this part to 300 words.

b) discuss your CSS using "Complex, Sociotechnical Systems (CSS): Some Fundamental Concepts" as a guide, limiting your response to this part to 1000 words.

c) add concepts to "Complex, Sociotechnical Systems (CSS): Some Fundamental Concepts" that you believe would help us to achieve a more complete document. Limit your response to this part to 250 words.

 10%

(PDF)

Reading (PDF)
8. Developing a well-posed research question Select an important problem associated with your primary area of scholarly interest, and write a brief memo (750 words). 10% (PDF)
9. Learning summary Write a 750 paper documenting 2-3 key lessons learned that represent new or important insights into Engineering Systems as a field that you first recognized in ESD.83. Also, document 2-3 key lessons learned that represent new or important insights relevant to your research. 10%  
10. Seminar participation It is assumed that regular preparation (i.e., ability to show intimate knowledge of all assigned reading materials through weekly comment paragraphs - see descriptions in Assignments 2 and 3), attendance and contributions to discussions will be driven by a shared interest in the subject material. Still, a portion of the course grade is allocated to our evaluation of the effectiveness of your seminar participation to highlight just how central this is to the success of the seminar. 20%