Entry requirements

130 credits, whereof at least 10 credits on an advanced level.

Learning outcomes

The course is designed as a short, but intensive, introduction and team-building series of seminars, which serves as an introduction to the second year of study in the MSc SINREM. It is designed around the solving of a real-world problem provided by partner firms. The overall goal of the course is to give the student a realistic view of realities, problems and opportunities facing an established company as well as a good understanding of the challenges of group work and cooperating with people with different backgrounds and competencies.

In addition the student should get a first insight in the importance of using robust methodology when solving real world problems. In accordance, the student will acquire a basic understanding of scientific methods.

More specifically the learning outcomes are:

After passing the course, the student should be able to describe and understand the essence of:

• problem solving – how to analyse a complex problem,
• basic project design,
• innovation and entrepreneurship essentials,
• project planning and project management basics,
• an overview of scientific methods,
• problem characteristics and the choice of methods,
• group dynamics and group thinking,
• IQ and emotional intelligence,
• basic presentation techniques and rhetoric.

Content

The course is built upon projects presented by participating firms or provided by the students themselves. The nature of the projects are either a well defined technical problem or something related to markets or customer environments. Projects that are proposed by students will have to be cleared by examiners before accepted. The scopes of the projects are limited to something that is possible to solve within a three-week period.

Students are organised in groups of 4 individuals (maximum) which are supervised by one mentor from industry and one mentor from academy. Work are organised in seminar sessions with reporting and discussion sessions following each learning topic. The groups are assigned problem-issues to solve to the next seminar session.

The course ends with a one-day seminar/conference where projects are presented and discussed and all companies and academic representatives are present.

Instruction

The course is organised in seminar sessions with teachers and company representatives present. Presentations by students are being made continuously with feed-back on both content and style of presentation.

In addition to formal teaching sessions, tutoring are made from both mentors to each group.

Assessment

Written examination (7hp) and written project reports (3hp).