Ten Secrets of Successful Students

Validity and Reliability of Engineering Analytical Methods & Processes

Engineering Project Management

The Seven Deadly Sins of Modernity

The Paradox's of Our Time

If I had my life to live again

The world NEEDS engineers

Graduate Student Research Organization Questions

What does "completed student work" mean?

What does "completed student work" mean?

Completed "student" (course students and Graduate Student Researchers) work is the study of a problem and presentation of a solution by the student in such a form that all that remains to be done by the supervising faculty member is to indicate approval or disapproval of the completed action and to suggest how the problem might better be solved.

The words completed action are emphasized because the more difficult the problem is, the more the tendency is to present the problem to the faculty member in a piecemeal or "half-baked" fashion. It is your responsibility to work out the details to the full extent of your abilities.

You may and should consult other students, faculty, library and archive sources, and those outside the university that can and are willing and qualified to help you.

The impulse which often comes to the inexperienced student to ask the faculty what to do recurs more often when the problem is difficult. It is important to ask the faculty what the goals and objectives are (define the problem), what the constraints (time, money, other) are, and in general how one might generally approach the development of a solution to the problem. It is very easy to ask the faculty what to do. Resist that impulse. You will succumb to it only if you do not know your job. As an engineer and student it is your job to learn how to solve problems effectively and efficiently.

Once the goals, objectives, and constraints are understood, it is your job to advise the faculty what you plan to do, not to ask the faculty what to do. The faculty needs answers, not questions. Your job is to study, consult, analyze, check, write, and rewrite until you have evolved a single proposed action and / or solution, the best one of all you have considered.

The concept of completed student work does not preclude a "rough draft" but the rough draft must not be"half-baked". It must be complete in every respect except that it lacks the requisite number of copies and need not be in final form ready for publication. It must be neat, clear, and well-thought out. A rough draft must not be used as an excuse for shifting to the faculty the primary burden of formulating an approach or solving the problem.

When you have completed your completed student work, the final test is this:

If you were the faculty supervisor, would you be willing to approve what you have prepared ,and stake your professional reputation on its being right?

If the answer is in the negative, take it back and work it over, because it is not completed student work.

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