Spring 2002

Course Overview

John Shortle

Systems Engineering and Operations Research

George Mason University

Course Description. �OR 680 / SYST 798 is the capstone course of the Master�s degree program both in Operations Research and in Systems Engineering.� Students should take this course at the end of their degree program.� The primary activity is completion of a major applied project, utilizing material learned from a large number of previous courses.

Class Hours: Th 7:20 � 10:00 pm, Enterprise 274

Pre-requisites:� OR 541, 542

Instructor: �� John Shortle

�� [email protected]

�� 703-993-3571

�� Science & Tech II, room 313

�� Office hours: � Tu / Th 1:30 pm � 3pm

��

Textbook:�� None

Course Requirements.

The main activity in this course is a group project.� In the first or second week of class, each student will give a 10-15 minute presentation on a project idea.� Students will then select the most promising ideas as projects and will organize themselves into groups.� Each group will have 3-4 students.� Different groups will work on different projects.� Students from different degree programs may work jointly on a project, but students� contribution to their project must reflect their individual areas of studies.�

Students are encouraged to use ideas from work as a basis for a project.� However, the project must be separate from work.� In other words, students cannot be paid for working on their project.� The project must be in addition to employment.

As part of their work, each group will establish and maintain a web page describing their project.� Each group will submit a final report at the end of the semester.� In addition, each group will give final presentantions to the department faculty.� Part of each student�s grade will be based on the evaluation by the faculty.� Finally, there will be interim reports and presentation due throughout the semester.

Student Evaluation Criteria

Final report	40%
Final presentation	30%
Web page	10%
Class participation	10%
Intermediate reports / presentations	10%

OR 680

Schedule for Spring 2002 (Tentative)

Thu. Jan. 24	Course introduction Student proposal presentations
Thu. Jan. 31	Student proposal presentations Formation of groups
Thu. Feb. 7	Finalization of groups
Thu. Feb. 14	Preliminary update presentations
Thu. Feb. 21	Preliminary update presentations Preliminary reports due
Thu. Feb. 28
Thu. Mar. 7	Project web page due
Thu. Mar. 14	Spring Break
Thu. Mar. 21	Interim presentations
Thu. Mar. 28	Interim presentations Mid-reports due
Thu. Apr. 4
Thu. Apr. 11
Thu. Apr. 18	Near-final presentations
Thu. Apr. 25	Near-final presentations Final reports due Final web pages due
Fri. May 3	Final presentations
Mon. May 13	Revised final reports due Revised final web pages due