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

jshortle@gmu.edu

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