GroupProjectsClassof2009Logistics

Click to edit Master title style,Click to edit Master text styles,Second level,Third level,Fourth level,Fifth level,*,Group Projects Class of 2009 Logistics,1,Information Sources,Group Project Guidelines,Located in Services section of the Bren website,Updates to the Guidelines should be completed by Corlei by the middle of Spring Qtr,.,Past Reports and Briefs,Brief Template and Example,2,nd,year Presentations this Wed April 2nd, 3pm,Double Tree Resort,Your 2,nd,year Peers,2,Administration,Group Project Committee (08-09),Christina Tague, Group Project Chair,John Melack,Cathie Ramus,Corlei Prieto,Staff Group Project Coordinator,Your first point of contact for all matters related to group projects,3,Registration,You should be registered in 401A (Tague) for spr 08,If not, do this before end of week or youll need an approval code,401B (fall 08) & 401C (win 09),Multiple sections; register in the one with your advisor,4,Meetings,Meet at least once/week,Students are responsible for scheduling meetings and securing meeting space (not advisors),Bonsai Room & Visitor Center are designated group project meeting spaces,Visitor Center available during business hours,Bonsai currently only available during business hours but will be available at all hours as soon as the electronic key pad is installed,Students,reserve rooms for group project meetings in these spaces using Corp Time,Instructions,Designate a CT scheduler for the group,5,Meetings (cont.),Be good peers,Check availability before scheduling,Never schedule on top of an existing reservation,Always remove reservations if you wont be using the room and remove it as soon as you know,Staff will not schedule group project meetings in other rooms unless it is a special stakeholder meeting (in this case send email to schedulingbren),Please use schedulingbren to reserve any media (i.e. video projectors, conference phone etc) and do so reasonably well in advance,6,Money Matters,Each group gets $1,300 plus up to $200 for printing,Includes all costs including poster and briefs,Printing allocations made to individual group members,Can “buy” more printing,Appoint a financial manager (FM) by Thursday 4/10 and inform Mike Best (mbestbren) via email (group nickname & manager name and email),Mike will arrange meetings with each manager (perhaps groups of managers) and educate them about financial matters,7,$,FMs should study information about finances in handbook,Get to know the Bren Schools Financial Staff,Connie Fourqurean (connie) = purchasing,Frank Soares (fsoares) = travel and payroll,Mike (mbest) = extramural and gift funds, proposals, financial statements, questions, problems, training,Each group gets a copy code and a phone authorization code,Optional voice mail available for monthly fee,Purchase orders must be used if they are acceptable by vendor,Otherwise payment is made up front by group member and then original receipt submitted for reimbursement,8,External Funds,While obtaining additional funding may be desirable, we generally dont pick projects that cant be done on the base budget provided by the School or funding,promised,by the client.,At the beginning of the project get funding commitments of clients firmed up (working with advisor and appropriate Bren School staff),You are not encouraged to spend a lot of time trying to raise funds at the expense of doing the project!,9,Contracts/Grants,Contract/grant = money give to University for a specific deliverable(s),Proposal to funding organization is written (with Mike Bests coordination),Must be faculty principle investigator (PI); PI ultimately responsible,Proposal must have budget, budget justification, clearly articulated deliverables, start and end date,Must be approved by the Office of Research before submission (takes at least 1 week),ONLY the Office or Research can accept contract and grant money; you cant do this on your own!,OVERHEAD RATE = 50%!,i.e. $100 yields only $50 of real capital,10,Gifts are Best!,Donor writes check to UC Regents stating that it is a gift,Can be no deliverables; no signed paperwork; can be general stipulations “to support research about alien life on Mars”,All gifts coordinated by Jennifer Deacon (jenniferbren),Most federal agencies and many other public agencies can not make gifts,11,The Golden Rule,If you want the gold, you have to speak with Jennifer first,Do not under any circumstances, even if faculty tell you to, talk to anyone about a giving a gift without first talking with Jennifer Deacon!,Active fundraising by students without Jennifers guidance is not appropriate,12,Summer Internships,If internships promised, identify one group member to be the summer internship coordinator (IC),Decide EARLY who is going to do the internships,IC works with Dave Parker for help coordinating internships,“Hiring” should be done through the external organization if at all possible,If this is not possible, we need to try to get a,gift,from the organization and dispense to students as a fellowship,13,Nicknames,BACIPS,CATALINA,COPPER,TNC,MPA,MEXICO,PIUTE,COFAN,SEALEVEL,DECKERS,YARDI,LIMONEIRA,ANTELOPE,ZURICH,14,Work Stations,One computer for each group in Commons,Computer assignment map in Services/Group Projects,Exception: TMP Deckers and Mexico will be in BH 2027 until we create more stations in Commons (although that probably wont be during your time here),Obtain keys from Frank Soares,Move-in date = April 25th,15,Computer Resources,Each group must appoint,Web Manager (IM),Data Manager (DM),Inform compute team (requestbren) by Thursday 4/10,Compute staff will hold a mandatory training meeting for DMs and IMs in the near future,Much to learn about computing related to group projects,16,Website,Each group must create (by end of spring quarter) and maintain a web site:,At a minimum the following is required:,Names and email of all group members,Group email address,Names and email of advisor(s),Final project proposal (completed at the end of spring),17,Grading,Grades,Letter grade assigned for 401A by Tague,IP (In Progress) grade at end 401B,Letter grade assigned at end of 401C by advisor,Letter grade replaces previous IP grade,B or better required,Separate grades,often the whole group gets the same grade but this is not required,Written Evaluation,Advisor should provide one at the end of all fall,Demand this!,18,Evaluation Criteria,401A,Tague will outline in her class,401B & C,Understanding of relevant published literature,Critical perspective on quality and shortcomings of prior work,Understanding of both social and natural science dimensions of the issues,Originality of analysis, problem formulation and scope of work,Relationships with outside advisors and stakeholders,Resourcefulness,Punctuality,Communication skills,Participation,19,Final Approval,Approval Signature,Advisor must approve final report with signature or you cant be recommended for a MESM degree,Signature and grade may be withheld until report is acceptable,20,Peer Evaluations,Peer Evaluations,S (08) submitted to Tague & faculty advisor,F (08) & W (09) submitted to faculty advisor,If you dont identify probs., they cant be solved,These are taken into account in assigning grades,21,Faculty Evaluations,401A reviewed at the end of spring,Advisor Evaluations,End of Project,Extremely important that every group member participates and provides thorough and informative feedback,Why not end of spr & fall?,Past students recommended against this because many uncomfortable doing so mid-project and when it is difficult to be anonymous,Communicate serious mid-project advisor issues to Corlei, anonymously if need be,22,Faculty Advisors,Monitor progress, provide technical assistance/expertise, and evaluate project and assign grades,Project leadership and mgmt and the quality of the final products is YOUR responsibility,NOT project managers, more like a consultant,Attend a regular meeting,Provide advice but generally reactive,No two advisors alike,Expect variability in engagement, expectations, responsiveness, and feedback,May be quite hands off,All expect you to take charge,23,Faculty Advisors,Use them. but you need to askdont wait for them to come to you,Turn around time needs vary but you should NEVER expect under 1 week,Schedule initial meeting with advisor NOW and explore how they will interact with you,Think about putting it in writing,24,External Advisors,Groups are expected to obtain the counsel of outside advisors who may have interest in the projects, data, or deliverables,You are responsible for identifying them, developing professional relationships with them and maintaining professional contact,Interact with them with absolutely the highest standards of professionalism,Dont have a meeting without an agenda,Prepare minutes,Send thank you notes,Meet deadlines and keep promises,Never share negativity,ACKNOWEDLEGE them frequently, privately and publicly (if they welcome this),25,Structure of the Group,Democracy vs. efficient organization,This is a situation where democracy is overrated,Someone needs to be in charge or chaos will rule,My advice: designate a project manager!,Give manager authority to be the ultimate decision-maker (not tyrant),Rotate role?,Must designate a financial manager, data manager, and web manager,May want to create other roles as well (get advise from 2,nd,years),26,Problems,Primary responsibility for problem solving lies with students,Avoid complaining; propose solutions,Its possible youll have slackers or pseudo-slackers,Involve advisor after thorough efforts by the group to solve problems,If serious unresolvable problems (this is rare), go to Corlei and/or John; they will involve group project committee if appropriate,Written documentation essential if administrative solution ultimately required,PS There is an campus ombuds office:,27,Use of Human Subjects,MUST follow very strict procedures and may need to obtain approval from the human subjects committee if human subjects will be used in research,This even applies to CONDUCTING SURVEYS!,Please review the Office of Research site about this:,Process can take a bit of time so dont wait till the last minute to tackle,Its potentially a,very big deal,not to be in compliance,28,Deliverables,See Group Project Guidelines for Specific Deadlines and Timelines,29,Spring 2008,Draft Project Proposal,Date provided by Tague,Final Project Proposal,Date provided by Tague but certainly before proposal review meeting,Any other deliverables required by Tague,Proposal Review Meeting,Before the end of the quarter,Peer Evaluations,30,Proposal Review,Purpose: to gain critical feedback and use this to finalize proposal,Groups are responsible for scheduling, organizing, conducting, and documenting,Meeting must include:,All group members,Faculty advisor,At least one other Bren faculty member (two is even better),At least two external (i.e. non-Bren) advisors from on or off campus,Schedule well in advance,Provide proposal at least one week in advance,Run as a formal meeting,Recommendation: summary memo,31,Fall 2008,Progress review meeting (mid-quarter),Report one groups progress to your advisors, stakeholders, etc.,Purpose is to obtain feedback intended to strengthen their research agenda.,Presentation should cover the following,Clearly stated project objectives,Importance of research,Plan for executing research,Expected results,Progress so far,Written Progress Report (by end of quarter),NOT a revised version of the spring proposal!,Focus on progress and changes since spring and a plan for finalization,Peer Evaluations (end of quarter),32,Winter 2009,Project Defense,Middle of quarter,Research should be completed and preliminary recommendations and conclusions formulated,Scheduled by GPC; everyone invited to come,Two independent reviewers arranged to attend,20-25 minute presentation; 15-20 minutes questions,Critical evaluation of work must like a thesis defense.,Expect probing questions and criticism which will likely result in some revisions to draft report,Presentation should not be a glossy overview; it should focus on content, substance and methodology,Feedback should be considered in finalizing project,33,Winter 2008 (cont),Final report,High quality draft due mid-quarter; expect multiple iterations,Due at end of quarter; deadline is FIRM,Electronic & hard copy with original signature page to GPC,Formatting requirements detailed in guidelines,Abstract and acknowledgements for presentation program,Brief,4 page summary of highlights with graphics,Template on web,Electronic copy to GPC & several (50-100) hard copies for distribution,Poster,(4x3 4x6); lamination not required but recommended,34,Public Presentation,Date TBA; Group projects officially end winter quarter so it could be as early as the end of finals week; likely the first week of spring quarter,Not the same as defense talk because different audience,Dont “dumb down” but tailor it to a diverse audience more interested in substance and findings and less in details of methods,Opportunity to videotaped practice session in advance,One presenter (recommended); no more than two,All members seated up front as part of panel for questions,Everyone wears formal business dress,Hint: This does not = flip flops; Dr Seuss ties, etc.,Approximately 25 minutes including 7 minutes for questions,Poster session & reception follows,35,What you need to start doing,IMMEDIATELY,READ the Group Project guidelines,Schedule meetings,Define roles and email relevant parties,Start developing your group; learn about each other; do something together,Educate yourself about your project,Collect papers and reports and read about your project,You cant get started and you cant do a good job if you dont know the current state of knowledge,Get clients funding commitments firmed up (working with advisor and appropriate Bren staff),36,Helpful Resources,Writing skills,Writing Center (writingbren),Individual and group tutoring,Research skills,Janet Martorana (martoranlibrary),Librarian assigned to Bren,Holds weekly office hours here at Bren,37,Whats to be avoided?,Vague objectives,Scope too broad or too narrow,More often than not this thing gets too big,Procrastination and/or uneven work distribution,Expect at least 12 hours/week of work,Dont waste spring quarter; BIG MISTAKE,No one in charge,Poor understanding of “state of knowledge”,Unfocused or biased recommendations,Poor/unprofessional interactions,Having group project become all or overly consuming and not taking advantage of all the other important learning opportunities at Bren,38,Cautions,The work belongs to ALL group members,Everyone must be listed as authors in all presentations and publications even if youve adapted it,Make sure references to others work/data/models are thoroughly referenced,There may be problems sharing datasets or products with outside clients because of licensing agreements; explore this well in advance with Jason.,39,Conclusion,This may or may not be extremely challenging (more likely may),You may or may not have issues with group members, advisor of clients,This is one of the best preparations possible for your future career (ask any alum or employer),You will face the same sorts of challenges (and harder) in your job; appreciate the opportunity to practice now,This is an educational experience”a practice not a perfect”,Relish the process as well as the product,40,