Summary of group projects

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Groups

• Four to five students
• Deliberate mix of Engineering, MBA, and SIMS students
• Your initial group makeup will be chosen by the instructor to meet the goal of mixing fields and interests based on the initial course survey. (Initial voluntary groupings typically do not achieve this mix.) Pairwise exchanges among groups are permitted, as long as they are between students with similar backgrounds (both MBA students, both EECS students, both SIMS students, both non-EECS engineering students). Inform the instructor of any changes.
• If any students drop the course, the instructors may have to ask students to move between groups to maintain balance. To minimize this, groups will not be formed initially until several weeks into the semester.

Due dates

The due date and time for projects are noted on the class calendar. See “grades” for policies on late project reports and other grading issues on the projects.

Projects summary

There will be two projects:

• First project: Evaluation of a product or industry segment or company in terms of the concepts from the course. [details]
• Second project: Consideration of both sides of a controversial issue, including a class debate. Two groups will address each issue, taking the two sides. [details]

Group organization

Each project group should designate two people for each project (it is a good idea to rotate these responsibilities between the first and second project):

• A group leader, who will coordinate the group, set up meetings, lead group discussions, etc.
• A group webmaster, who will the responsibility for gathering and integrating written inputs, soliciting comments, and formating and posting the final report.

Outcomes

• First project: written report posted to the web and an in-class presentation of your key issues and findings of not more than 15 minutes.
• Second project: short written report summarizing both sides of the debate and a 40-min in-class debate with another group. Debate positions will be determined by group preferences, or by a coin toss if the groups’ preferences are incompatible.