Monopoly money simulation of created value via market analysis and crowdsourcing

This showcase is a poster presentation and prototype demonstration for a junior/senior/grad elective class called The Basics of Making described in the hyperlinked KEEN card.  Students, faculty, and staff will assign value to other student groups’ exhibition of created value and competence in generating an Arduino-based system with at least one sensor and at least one object that the student group does its own CAD drawing for and prints itself.  

A degree of difficulty factor will be assigned as a measure of curiosity according to the number and complexity of sensors, controls, CAD drawings, objects made, materials and tools used, and computer programming done.  

A separate curiosity and connections score will be quantified as follows.  Student groups will be asked to do a Web of Science search, a patent search, and web site searches of articles, specification sheets, and price quotes from vendors and/or competitors.  Students will compile these into an appendix of the final written report; triple value is awarded to each item that is associated with an e-mail or phone call and the name of the person contacted.  Then they will prepare a table summarizing a preliminary score and justification for this section.

Students will be given this assignment on day 1 of the class and be expected to generate a questions and issues sheet (https://engineeringunleashed.com/cards/cardview.aspx?CardGuid=4a1a8002-b6f9-4cb1-9d52-61410f4d7217) to define the problem.  Then they will define who their target market is as a) their own research or upcoming senior design projects, b) other faculty’s research projects and/or equipment listed in a separate document, c) projects to upgrade other lab courses on campus, or d) a mutually agreed upon project. 

Prior to the showcase, students will prepare a bill of materials and a total number of hours spent on the project.  Students’ time will be multiplied by $36/hour (wages + fringe benefits + indirect costs).  All costs will be entered into a return on investment (ROI) spreadsheet, and students will estimate ROI as a function of yearly income and capital investment cost using an Excel data table.  

The assessment of created value will be conducted at the showcase. Each student/faculty/staff evaluator will be granted $2000 in Monopoly money that they can spend on others’ products (proceeds going to a container with a yellow Post-It note) to simulate customer interest, invest in others’ products (proceeds going to a container with a pink Post-It notes to simulate crowdsourcing, or not spend the money at all on the night of the showcase.  After the showcase, students’ Monopoly dollars will be divided by 100 and be redeemable for Arduino-based sensors, controls, and other items from excess inventory.  This $20 per person cost is built into the cost of the kit purchased at the start of the course.