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FST 696 Technical Problem Solving

Instructor: Sheryl Barringer
Office: Room 317 Parker Food Science and Technology Building
Phone: 688-3642; Fax 292-2018; E-Mail Barringer.11@osu.edu

Tuesday and Thursday 2-5pm, 118 Parker Food Science and Technology Building

The course is both a "Cap Stone" course and a Third Writing Course therefore the goals are to teach problem solving, integrate everything the student has learned about the science and business of the food industry, and teach writing skills.  The problems in this course are real and current industry problems, so obviously change every year. For each problem, an industry representative will serve as a liaison between the company presenting the problem and the students.

Goals

·         Teach the principles of problem solving

·         Provide an opportunity to practice being a leader

·         Improve technical writing skills

·         Teach how to find information to solve problems

 

Attendance:

Attendance is required and will be taken at 2pm.  Each time you are late, you lose 10% of your participation grade.  If you have a valid excuse, call or email before class starts.  The entire team may decide to visit the company or work in the pilot plant during Tuesday class of week 4, 6, or 8.  This is fine.  Just send the instructor an email with the names of all of the team members and the date you will be out of class.  The reason for the attendance policy is that your team is relying on you to come to class, and they suffer when you do not show up.

Presentations, readings, grading sheets and past projects can also be found at http://class.Fst.Ohio-state.Edu/fst696/fst696.Html, but may be out of date.  The information in the course packet takes precedence.

Required class packet:

There is a packet of class handouts that needs to be purchased from Tuttle CopEz, next to the bookstore. Tuttle Park Place Garage 2055 Millikin Way, 2-2219. 7am-11pm M-F.  

Major concepts of the class:

• Everyone can be a problem solver.
• You cannot plan having a good idea.
• You have got to have supreme confidence.
• Every individual has something positive to contribute
• Experimentation is a part of the problem solving process.
• Nothing solves problems like persistence.

Typical Day:

Music to create a mental break and get ready to be creative.  Attendance taken silently.

Questions to industry rep or oral presentations, if applicable.

In-class problem solving activity to teach the principles of problem solving.

Work on ST or LT projects (generally ST on odd weeks, LT on even weeks.)

Short Term Problem

Procedure for short term problems:

All of the students will work on the same short term problem. Teams of 3-4 students each will operate independently to work on short term problems. The teams may use any resources they wish (experts, library, etc), except that they cannot discuss the problem with other teams. Teams will be rearranged half way through the quarter.

The statement of the problem will be provided by the industry. One person each will serve as the Leader,  Brainstormer and Analyzer.  The Leader is responsible for bringing together and presenting the team's solutions. Each non-leader team member must write one cause, solution and limitation, and give it to the leader before the rough draft is due.  The Leader will email the list of questions, ask the questions, email the rough draft, print and bring the rough draft, make an oral presentation of the team's solution and turn in a short written report on the team's solution. The Brainstormer chooses the brainstorming technique to use and is responsible for leading brainstorming activities and the Analyzer is responsible for leading the criticizing of the final draft on or after the second Thursday.  Each person will serve in each role once during the quarter; however, everyone needs to brainstorm, do research, and analyze on every project. Some time will be given for each team to define the possible causes of the problem and determine the questions they will ask to provide a basis for solving the problem. (Due Wednesday by 8am in an email to Barringer.11@osu.edu.) Evaluation of related problems cited in the literature and making contact with people knowledgeable in the field is encouraged. The company representative will be available, either in person or by conference phone, to provide answers to the questions. Thursday of the second week an emailed rough draft is due, consisting of the 3-4 solutions from the members plus ideally the rest of the paper.  The instructor will go over the drafts with the class. The following Tuesday the written and oral causes and solutions will be evaluated by teams of students.  Also oral presentations of the results are made by the leaders.  The following Thursday the paper is turned in and graded.

The more solutions the team comes up with, the more likely they are to come up with a good solution.  The more techniques you try, the more solutions you will think of.  Therefore, each team is required to try at least one new problem solving technique for each problem they work on (5 total).  Included at the end of your written report is a statement of which technique you tried and how well it worked.  Also included needs to be a list of all of the causes and solutions the team thought of.  There must be at least ten of each.  These can be a list; therefore you don’t need to use complete sentences.  These causes and solutions do not need to be justified or explained.  They also do not need to be logical, legal, ethical, economical or physically possible.  This list is a result of your brainstorming sessions.

The entire team needs to agree on the content of the final paper, therefore as early as the second Thursday or as late as the third Tuesday, the team must meet face to face and the Analyzer leads the criticizing session.  This date must be reported in the final paper.

Following presentation of all reports, team leaders will make a list of all possible causes and solutions and vote on the best solution. Generally, with teams working independently, a number of different solutions are suggested. Multiple solutions are often feasible, and the choice of a solution may depend on a number of factors. [Remember that compromises may be necessary in providing the best solution for the circumstances, which will depend in part on available resources and costs.]

Basic Short Term Problem schedule:

Day 1    Tuesday     Problem statement distributed. Question generation, brainstorming and assigning solutions to write should happen.

Day 2    Wednesday    Leader emails questions to barringer.11@osu.edu by 8am.

Day 3    Thursday   Leaders ask questions of industry representative.  Other team members can submit questions to the Leader in writing during the phone call.

Day 4-14                 Email additional questions to barringer.11@osu.edu.  Industry rep will reply if they have time.

Before Day 10        Team members email 1 complete solution to leader

Day 10  Thursday   Leader emails rough draft with the 3-4 solutions plus the rest of the paper if possible to barringer.11@osu.edu by 8am

Day 10-15               Analyzer leads face to face meeting criticizing the final paper

Day 15  Tuesday     Leaders give oral presentation and bring 2 copies of the written report with list of all solutions, dates and problem solving technique used.  Class summarizes causes and solutions and prioritizes best solutions.  Class discusses problem solving techniques used. Short term teams write evaluations of 2 other teams’ reports.

Day 17  Thursday   Leader turns in 2 copies of written report and emails a copy to Barringer.11@osu.edu.   

Long Term Problems:

Students will be assigned to teams to study different long term teams.  The teams will study one major technical project for the entire quarter, using the facilities of the department's pilot plants and laboratories to give hands-on experience in problem solving. The Team will need to divide up the work, using the different backgrounds of the individual members.  The problem may be one related to product development or the solution of some product or processing problem associated with a food product.

Immediately after forming, the team will contact the company liaison person to get more specific information on the nature of the problem, discuss the company’s objectives and possible directions for approaching the problem and to request ingredients and processing information.  Include Barringer.11@osu.edu in the cc line on any email you have with the industry representative about your long term project.  Every two weeks a progress report is due.  See the timeline for what should be finished and reported in each progress report. Half way through the quarter there is an oral progress report.  At the end of the quarter, the teams will turn in a draft report, final report and make a final oral report.  During class you can leave to go to another room to work, but let me know where the team is going so I can stop in and see you later.  If you want to go straight to work and not come to class on Tuesday of an even week, just email me where you will be instead of in class.

Timeline checklist for long term project, that MUST be turned in with the paper

Final Grade is the sum of all the grades. A=93-100; A= 90-93; B+=87-89 B=83-86; B-=80-82; C+=77-79; C=73-76; C-=70-72; D+67-69; D=63-66; D-=60-62; E= <60

Schedule for 2009:

Bold is short term team work.  Italics is long term team work. In general, the class works on the short term problem odd weeks and long term even weeks.

11/09/09
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