M&Ters; 'engineer' new course, first class designed by students

Wharton and Engineering seniors Shane Lipson and Ryan Sacco are breaking new ground in curriculum development. With the introduction next semester of Systems 140: "The Systems Approach to Problem Solving," the School of Engineering and Applied Science will have its first course designed entirely by students. Lipson and Sacco developed the freshman-oriented Systems Engineering course last spring in an independent study project supervised by Systems Engineering Professor Nelson Dorny. Students were asking for help in understanding the numerous choices Systems Engineering offers in its concentrations, Lipson said. "From our freshman year, there has been discussion about the need for a class earlier than sophomore year that gives people a taste of Systems Engineering," Sacco said. "This was our last chance to make this happen." Lipson and Sacco designed the new course to "introduce students to the methodology of systems thinking and provide a 'feel' for several different Systems Engineering fields." They proposed that the course be broken into three broad introductory topics -- queuing, optimization and modeling. Additionally, there would be an emphasis on technical writing, Lipson said. "We want to teach things that will support future engineering endeavors," he added. Upon reading their report, Dorny was sold. He accepted the role of course instructor and worked with the department to bring it to fruition. "I think the course content is excellent," Dorny said. "It requires that students work in teams to define or structure problems and articulate them orally and in writing." Lipson and Sacco wanted the course to break away from the standard set-up where the professor teaches a concept or idea, assigns homework problems and then tests the students on the concept. "This class is set up so students are asked to solve a problem first," Sacco said. For a typical class, students would be asked to divide into groups and set up a project plan to build an airplane, Lipson said. "The job of the professor is to highlight what they did right and wrong and show them the right way," he said. Dorny said these problem-formulation thought processes are the essence of systems thinking. He also stressed the influence that Lipson and Sacco will have in the course -- they have agreed to be Dorny's teaching assistants. "Most of the creative work in the development came from them," Dorny said. "They are generating the problem cases and will produce the bulkpack that will form the framework of the course." The creation of courses by students was originally encouraged last spring as part of the University's 21st Century Project. "Involvement of experienced students in course development has the potential to provide insights that professors are no longer able to see," Dorny said.