7 Module VII: Lifelong Learning
Lifelong Learning: Research and Troubleshooting
Elissa Ledoux; Mohammad Uddin; and Matthew Sheppard
ABET Student Outcome
ENGR Student Outcome 7: an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies
Whether you are in school, on the job, or just moving through life, learning never stops (if it does, it’s time to move on!). Engineers apply prior knowledge and independent research to solve problems: so if you don’t know how to do something, tap into your resources, do some research, and figure it out! We can all learn from those who went before us, so we don’t repeat the mistakes of history. This module covers practices for lifelong learning, as well as specific ways to apply these in senior design.
VII.1) Learning Strategies
In college, you approach the fountain of knowledge as an adult. Now, you are responsible for your own education. Your professors provide the opportunities to learn and the tools you need to succeed, but your success is now in your hands. As a senior in a capstone course, you will apply the knowledge you have gained over the last few years along with independent research to solve a new problem. This is the ultimate test. To succeed, you will need to be proactive, resourceful, organized, and efficient. The following slides offer tips on study skills and learning strategies.
Slide deck: Study Skills and Resources
VII.2) Competitor Analysis
Information
Competitor Analysis consists of researching existing technology (“prior art”) that is related to your project. This includes competing products on the market, research prototypes in development, or simply comparing different approaches to complete a system or subsystem’s task. Inspiration can be found everywhere in the world, and old techniques in one area can be used to solve new problems in another. Competitor analysis is a great way to inform a design, because it reveals the positive and negative aspects of existing products, so that the new design can improve upon them. Information from several sources should be collected, so that the design is informed by a broad range of ideas rather than a narrow one. Sources include:
- Internet searches: this approach is best used for getting an overview of the competition landscape and finding what similar products, if any, exist on the market. It is important to note that not everything on the internet is true, so exercise caution in your search. Although websites with the extension .org tend to be the most trustworthy, in general, .com sites are more centered on commercial product information, and social media sites and television commercials tend to be the least transparent regarding technical product details. Product information in the form of videos, images, and text, can be found by searching in
- Bing (Microsoft Edge)
- Duck Duck Go
- Safari (Mac only)
- Mozilla Firefox
- YouTube
- Scholarly searches: Patents and academic research publications provide more technical and honest design details than general internet searches do. These are more challenging to understand and digest, but can give excellent insight into the inner workings of a system or product. The most accessible scholarly search engines are:
- Google Scholar (for research publications)
- Google Patents (for patents)
Your school’s library website is also a good place to find publications and patents, and even when using Google scholar, being on your school’s internet or logged in via VPN will provide access to many more resources than not. This is because your school pays for subscriptions to research journals, while you personally would only be able to read “open access” publications otherwise.
- Personal contacts: discussing ideas and and asking questions to experts in the field can reveal insider knowledge that is hard to find reliably online. Your parents and their friends (if they work in your field of interest), sales or tech support phone lines, or other company representatives are all good resources to consult.
Activity
As a team, conduct a competitor analysis for your intended product. Each team member should research on his or her own to compile a list of existing products, research prototypes, or methodology, with descriptions, pro/con lists, and citations. Compare and compile everyone’s findings using the worksheet below. How do these findings influence your project’s design?
VII.3) Project Review Evaluation
Information
An evaluation of the performance of a project after it has been completed is useful for both personal and organizational improvement. Typically, a project review evaluation is an open-ended discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the project plan and execution, and focuses on the following questions:
- Which aspects of project performance (e.g., development time, development cost, product quality, manufacturing cost) were most positive?
- Which aspects of project performance were most negative?
- Did any tools, methods, or practices contribute to the positive aspects of performance?
- Did any tools, methods, or practices detract from project success?
- What problems did the team encounter?
- What specific actions can the organization (i.e., the students and the instructor) take to improve project performance next year?
- Would you recommend that we work with your client in future projects?
- What specific lessons were learned? How can they be shared with the students who take this course next semester?
Activity
Reflect upon your project over the past year or semester. Consider the highs and lows of your project performance, teamwork, sponsor interactions, and overall learning experience. Identify concrete areas of successes and failures among the above, and ways to improve. Write a project review evaluation using the guidelines below.
