The Technology and Operations Management curriculum requires that all graduates receiving their degree complete a senior project. This is part of our polytechnic heritage and our campus tradition of "learn by doing." Many students are unaware of what this requirement will demand of them, and some fail to receive their degrees because of a lack of understanding of what is expected. The following suggestions are intended to assist current students who are approaching the end of their TOM program to successfully complete their senior project and earn their degree.

Get the proper orientation
The senior project is not “just another course.” Writing a senior project is not “just a big term paper.” Doing a senior project will require you to do three things: 1) gather data, 2) analyze data, and 3) write a report based on the analysis of the data. For most students, these are unfamiliar tasks. To help you prepare, the curriculum requires you to take TOM 460 Senior Project Design and Development. The purpose of this course is to help you prepare your senior project proposal. Your proposal is essentially a start-to-finish “roadmap” of what you will do in carrying out your project. It needs to be sufficiently detailed so that when you start your project, you will know exactly who is involved, what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, and how you are going to do it. The proposal you produce in the course is the foundation for a culminating academic exercise. You will be expected to write an academic/technical report on your project when it is completed. Done well, you may have the opportunity to take the finished project and modify it (with the assistance of your faculty advisor) into a publishable article.

Think ahead
Prior to arriving for the first class meeting of TOM 460 Senior Project Design and Development, you should have one or more ideas about what you might do for your senior project. TOM 460 is not about spending ten weeks deciding on a topic. This course is about producing a proposal and preparing you to do the work of carrying out the senior project of your choice. Your decision about what you want to do occurs in the beginning of the course. The remainder of the course is devoted to helping you plan what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, how you are going to do it, and who might be involved. A problem statement needs to be created. Research questions and/or hypotheses need to be created. Assumptions and limitations must be considered. A literature review needs to be conducted. Data collection processes need to be described. Data analysis procedures need to be determined. Many students find that this is a lot to get done in only 11 weeks, so having a head start by having one or more topics in mind when you arrive at the first class meeting is a good idea.

Use your experience/company contacts
The most common barrier encountered in completing a senior project is gaining access to the required data. The answer may be your current company. Explore opportunities within your current employment setting. Brainstorm with supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates about your topic. Start asking questions about who you must get permission from in order to access the data you will need to carry out the senior project you have in mind. A letter of permission granting access to the required data should be included in the appendix to your proposal. Without data, you can’t carry out your project. If you plan on conducting a secondary data analysis, be aware that most senior project advisors will expect you to include a copy of the secondary data you expect to analyze as an appendix to your proposal. Without those data, you don’t really have a proposal.

Expect delays
No matter how good a job you do in TOM 460 in preparing your roadmap to complete your senior project, the real world will put some roadblocks in your path. How many you encounter depends on how good your proposal is. If you have a good proposal, the barriers encountered will be relatively few, you will have the time and energy to deal with these difficulties successfully, and you will be able to get back on track to completion. If you do not prepare a good proposal, you will encounter a great many obstacles, overcoming them will be costly in time and energy expended, and a longer time to complete the senior project can be expected. With a poor proposal, you can expect to abandon your senior project entirely, and never get your degree.

Success requires self-discipline
After you complete TOM 460 and you sign up for TOM 461/462/463, you will only be required to make periodic reports in TOM 463. You will not be required to come to campus on a regular basis to contact your senior project advisor. You are on your own, and you will be expected to assume responsibility for staying on task, staying on schedule, and making and keeping your own appointments with your senior project advisor. After years of being told what to do, and when to do it, many students have a great deal of difficulty dealing with this freedom. In many ways, this is a “test” to see if you really are ready to function as a working professional, or if you still have the mental attitude of a student. Working professionals are capable of self-discipline and independent activity. The TOM senior project experience should be an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you are capable of independent work. You will put in a lot of effort, but you will acquire valuable experience in a supervised environment, and gain self-confidence as a reward. This is a good position from which to advance your career.

The TOM department faculty look forward to working with each of you in accomplishing the necessary steps and tasks, from preparing a proposal through to successful completion of your senior project, and achieving the goal of graduating with a degree from the Technology and Operations Management Department.