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Session 1526

Teaching Theoretical Stochastic Modeling Courses Using Industrial Partners and Their Applied Problems

Timothy I. Matis, Linda Ann Riley

New Mexico State University Department of Industrial Engineering P.O. Box 30001 – MSC 4230 Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001

This paper describes a pilot project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement program that addresses the common learning challenges of engineering students enrolled in an undergraduate stochastic processes course. In particular, these students often have difficulty transferring this basic knowledge to solving real industrial problems. The traditional curriculum of this course is typically focused on theoretical development of the subject matter and not the implementation of such. Thus, the objective of this project is to introduce “real-world” applications into the curriculum through the development of technology-based laboratory modules in conjunction with several industrial partners to support the development of student problem solving skill using stochastic processes. Each module consists of a self-contained DVD which contains a description of a particular problem, unfiltered data, supporting documents, and student resources. The problem description portion of the DVD consists of one or more videos in which several industrial representatives describe the problem to the students in their own setting. They provide background information about the company, a description of the process under study, a focused description of the problem, and expected deliverables. The modules are presented to teams of students in a laboratory setting, and they will collectively use their knowledge of stochastic processes acquired through lecture to model the problem, parameterize the model, and perform the appropriate analysis. The time frame for each module spans a period of approximately 3-4 weeks at the end of which the students are asked to generate a written and oral report that is to be addressed to the head of the company, i.e. often a non-technical audience. Initial feedback from students, industrial representatives, and peer academic reviewers about the modules has been highly favorable.

In the remaining sections of this paper, we justify the need for this work in the context of engineering disciplines, describe one of the modules as an example, describe research activities and findings to this date, and discuss future work. It is important to note that the activities and findings of this paper span the 2003 calendar year, which corresponds to the first year of this project.

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Matis, T., & Riley, L. A. (2004, June), Teaching Theoretical Stochastic Modeling Courses Using Industrial Partners And Their Applied Problems Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13340