Overview of the PPS
Program
What is it?
The PPS
program is a series of units to help engineering students learn to
As such,
PPS could stand for any of the following
Professional
Practice Skills was chosen as the title primarily to communicate the value of
the units in the student’s professional life.
Students sometimes discount skills that they view as outside of
engineering and we want these skills to be seen as valuable to engineers.
The units
are intended to be presented throughout the four year curriculum, primarily in
design courses, but also in technical problems courses. Note that this is a work in progress and not
all units are completed.
Why do it?
Many
practicing engineers spend significant amounts of time managing projects,
dealing with ill-defined problems, troubleshooting production problems, and
learning new technology. An organized
approach to teaching students useful skills in these areas has been found to be
helpful (Alumni from
Additionally,
PPS units map well to ABET Criteria and Rose-Hulman Learning Outcomes. In the section on Organization and Topics,
the specific Criteria and Outcomes are listed.
Organization and
Topics of the PPS Program
The goal of
the program is to help students develop skills to
The
organization of the PPS Program follows this list.
Managing Projects, especially Design
Projects
The
Professional Practice Skills (PPS) units (PPS-1 through PPS-8, and PPS-31 through
PPS-36) are designed to help students develop skills in working individually
and with groups to set and achieve goals.
These topics are often covered in Design courses, but the skills are
equally appropriate to community service projects and within the student’s
personal life (PPS could stand for Personal Performance Skills).
Because the
skills are appropriate in many aspects of an individual’s life, in-class
exercises and out-of-class assignments cover both personal and engineering
issues. This follows the model
recommended by Woods to present the skill first in a subject-independent
domain, then bridge to the subject dependent domain, and to extend the skill to
everyday life. This emphasizes the
general value of the skill and should mean that the skill is less likely to be
relegated to the MExxx brain bin where it is either dumped at the end of the
course or only accessed when an MExxx topic is encountered.
Assessment
of the skills is explicitly defined for each skill. This serves several goals. One, the skills are seen as measurable,
rather than amorphous “soft skills”.
Two, grading is more likely to be fair, and be perceived as fair, if
everyone knows the standards. Three, for
lifelong learning, students need to be able to self-assess, and for that, clear
assessment criteria are needed.
|
Unit (Web) (Word File) |
Title |
Topics |
|
|
Working
in Groups, Meetings |
Meeting
skills, agendas, minutes, action items, group norms, role of the chairperson,
individual responsibilities |
||
|
Goals And
Assessment |
Setting
results-based, measurable goals |
||
|
Creativity/Brainstorming |
Jumping
the mental ruts to generate many different ideas |
||
|
Developing
Criteria and Constraints |
Developing
clear, quantifiable criteria to achieve a goal |
||
|
Decision
Making |
Evaluating
options with respect to quantifiable criteria, and selecting the “best” |
||
|
Project
Planning |
Work
breakdown and scheduling, Gantt charts |
||
|
PPS-7 |
|
Group
Skills Workshop |
Workshop
on behaviors related to task, morale |
|
PPS-8 |
|
Group
Skills: Individual differences |
Individual
differences and making personality diversity work |
|
Group
Skills: Listening |
Providing
the speaker with evidence of listening |
||
They are
useful to all ABET criteria but map most explicitly to ABET criteria c, d, e,
and i.
c. an
ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs.
d. an
ability to function on multidisciplinary teams.
e. an
ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.
i. a
recognition of need for and ability to engage in lifelong learning.
They also
map to RHIT student outcomes Teams and Design
Managing Projects, Level 2
|
Unit |
|
Title |
Topics |
|
PPS-31 |
|
Agent of
Change |
Assessing
a situation for change, getting buy-in |
|
PPS-32 |
|
Dealing
with Change |
Addressing
change within your own life and the lives of those you affect as an Agent of
Change |
|
PPS-33 |
|
Goals
Level 2 |
Characteristics
of a Goal, Mission/Vision statements |
|
PPS-34 |
|
Group
Skills: Conflict |
Dealing
with conflict |
Principles of Problem Solving
PPS-10
through PPS 18 address topics most applicable to what are generally termed Engineering
Problems courses. In those courses,
students typically solve two to three end-of-chapter problems for every hour in
lecture.
In the
Woods terminology, these “problems” are better termed “exercises” since they
are generally very well defined examples of the principles just covered in
class. The student’s primary strategies
for dealing with these homework problems is to find a very similar example
problem for a model, or to try all the equations at hand until a number looks
like the one in the back of the book.
The
following Principles of Problem Solving units apply a different approach. First, the students are introduced to there
own thought processes in an effort to show them that thinking can be broken
down into components. These thinking
skills can be manipulated and improved to enhance problem solving
abilities. An overall problem solving
approach is introduced, and specific instruction is given in how to apply it.
During the
course of the term, or several terms, specific skills are addressed within the
context of the general approach.
|
Unit (Web) (Word File) |
Title |
Topics |
|
|
Awareness |
Recognition
that problem solving is a compilation of skills, much like hitting a golf
ball. Awareness of the internal
process. |
||
|
Problem
Solving Method |
Description
of a 6-step general approach to problem solving. |
||
|
Strategy workshop |
Practicing
the 6-step method, |
||
|
Define
the Stated Problem |
Classify the
components of the given statement into categories of goals, givens and
knowns, criteria and constraints, |
||
|
Define the
System |
Determining
the boundary of the system to be analyzed, and identifying all inputs and
outputs. Called system diagram,
free-body diagram, … |
||
|
PPS-15 |
|
Getting
Unstuck |
Recognizing
when you are stuck and developing techniques to get unstuck |
|
PPS-16 |
|
Organizing
and Classifying Technical Knowledge |
Understand
the structure of knowledge in your discipline and be able to use appropriate
language and symbology |
|
PPS-17 |
|
Analysis:
Consistency |
Ability
to compare with standards, esp. units, conversions, assumptions, typical
values. Ability to check other’s work
for consistency, accuracy. |
|
PPS-18 |
|
Applying
Experience/ Engineering
intuition |
Appling
Rules-of-Thumb |
|
PPS-19 |
|
Estimating |
Estimating
and back of the envelope work |
These map
mostly to ABET a, e, I, and k and to RHIT Problem Solving
a. an
ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering.
e. an
ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.
k. an
ability to use techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for
Dealing with Day-to-Day Problems and
Self Directed Learning
Most
engineers need to deal with multiple projects, unexpected failures, and a
wealth of problems with which they had little or no prior knowledge. The units in this section teach skills to
deal with those day-to-day problems.
In
particular, the unit on troubleshooting presents an adaptation of the Six Step
Method of problem solving that approximates the differential diagnosis approach
used by physicians. It is the first step
of root cause failure analysis.
|
Unit (Web) (Word File) |
Title |
Topics |
|
|
Stress
Management |
Personal
Stress Management |
||
|
Time
Management |
Personal
Time management |
||
|
Troubleshooting
|
Adaptation
of the Six Step method to diagnosis of problems, (finding root cause) |
||
|
Self-Directed
Learning SDL (overview) |
Learning
as an engineering project. Includes
finding, using, and evaluating resources. |
||
|
SDL:
Locating and Filtering Information |
Using
resources to find and select useful nuggets of information |
||
|
SDL:
Evaluating Resources |
A
quantitative evaluation of resources (especially web sources) |
||
|
SDL:
Learning New Information (from reading) |
An
organized approach to efficiently learning through reading |
||
|
SDL
Assessing Learning (learning goals) |
Determining
assessable learning goals using Bloom’s Taxonomy |
||
|
|
|
|
|
The fact
that Troubleshooting does not map explicitly to any ABET or RHIT goal seems to
be a serious omission. Perhaps the
authors of those lists intend it to fall in the generic “problem solving”
category, but the skill of problem diagnosis does not appear to be taught
formally.
Stress and
Time Management, and Self Directed Learning are useful on a day to day basis
and map to ABET “i” and RHIT Lifelong learning
i. a
recognition of need for and ability to engage in lifelong learning.