Turning regular labs into simulated industry consulting projects--featuring the pseudo-company Compressor Overflow.

Scope
Industrial laboratory problems can be ill-defined.  They rarely have an orderly set of instructions that someone can take to solve them.  But a typical undergraduate laboratory course is just the opposite.  Students are given well-defined problems with a set of orderly steps required to solve them. 

To better prepare students for the problems they will face, a new pedagogy was developed to convert the typical undergraduate experience into a real-world simulation complete with company memos, difficult 'corporate" personalities to report to, open-ended problems, and consulting teams instead of lab teams.  It has been used in both a senior-level thermal fluids lab as well as a junior level measurements and instrumentation course in mechanical engineering.      

This card presents a specific example of this pedagogy.  It is easily adaptable to other laboratory courses.

Overview
Students are first divided into consulting teams.  Throughout the semester, each team receives a letter for a pseudo-company named Compressor Overflow Inc.  These letters contain open-ended problems this company is running into with their newly acquired factory.  Examples of these include:

• We're about to sign a contract with a partner company, Honest Enmity LLC, to purchase their (very expensive) drag-free surface treatment.  Our chief engineer needs their claims verified.   
• Our purchase of the factory included a storeroom filled with pumps, and we have no idea how to characterize them or how efficient they are.  Help us develop a process. 
• The heating elements for one of our processes keep exploding!  We have no idea why since the pressure and temperature of the liquid around them doesn't really change even as the heating elements fail.  We need you to figure out why! 
• Our factory came with several kilometers of ducting with cross-flow electric heaters.  Should we tear it out, or can we use the existing heaters in the duct for heating one of our processes?

Students explore these issues with the equipment "Compressor Overflow Inc. has delivered to the consulting team's lab."  The instructor for this course acts as Compressor Overflow's liaison to show students how to run the equipment safely.  When students get stuck, the instructor leads each consulting team to the whiteboard for a personalize mini-lecture/discussion on some part of the relevant theory. 

Students have to present their findings either orally to a "representative from Compressor Overflow" or through a written report.   

The Contents of Each Letter
Each letter from Compressor Overflow contains an industrial problem they are having, a reason why it matters, a list of open-ended tasks they need completed, and an enclosure from their ex-Chief engineer that contains hints, some background theory, and some ideas they can start with.  See sample letters uploaded below. 

Mini-Lectures
For each letter, the instructor has a series of mini-lectures prepared.  These 5-minute lectures cover some aspect of the theory that students are likely to get stuck on.  For example, one mini-lecture is on how to transform an indeterminate system of measurements into a determine one--a task students will end up having to do during one of Compressor Overflow's requests.  Another mini-lecture is on experimentally developing scaling laws for pumps.

The purpose of each mini-lecture is to help students connect engineering theory from past classes to these new situations. 

Oral Reports to Difficult Personalities
Some Compressor Overflow letters request student consulting teams report back to the COO of Compressor Overflow in a live update to industry format.  The part of the COO is played by either the course instructor or by actual volunteers from industry.  Consulting teams were informed that the COO may not even remember assigning this letter or the details of their project since the COO is a very busy individual.  During the live update, the COO is played to be a "difficult personality typical of those found industry."  Students are told that "if the COO doesn't understand what you're saying, they won't assume it's their problem for not being smart enough--they'll assume it's your problem for not explaining things well enough."  The COO constantly peppers groups with questions and real-life feedback such as:

• "You have nine significant figures in your results.  Impressive.  We must have sent some very expensive equipment to your lab site.  I'll have to make a note to check your budget carefully."
• "What are the units on that?  You don't know?  Then what does a number mean if you don't know it?"
• "Is that plot important?  I can't read it!  It's too small!"
• "That's a large table of data.  I'm going to need you to walk me through it since I can't see any of the trends in that data like I could with a plot."
• "What does that mean?  Do you have a picture of it?  Can you draw it for me?  If it's important, then I better understand it!" 
• "I'm probably 50% of the way there in understanding your explanation.  Keep trying.  Can you think of a specific example of this that I'd be familiar with?  Something we might manufacture in industry?" 

This forces students to really consider their audience, what their audience knows, and how to best organize the information for their audience.  After the update to industry, students receive detailed minute-by-minute feedback about what was going on in the mind of the COO.  Things such as:

• "The COO understood what you meant here, but imagined this next part in a whole different way.  A picture of your setup would have helped immensely."
• "There's a reason why 'a picture is worth a thousand words.'  Ten people can imagine what you said here ten different ways.  But with a picture, ten people can only imagine it one way." 
• "The COO couldn't see how your model and measurements matched because you have them on two different slides.  The COO was very confused.  If they were on the same slide, or even on the same plot, it would have helped the COO see that the agreement between them is excellent."
• "The COO understood it when you used this specific example.  This was a strong point in your presentation." 

This immediate feedback helps students understand the mechanics behind their presentation in a way most of them have never experienced.

Example Letter
See the files section below for an example Compressor Overflow Letter.