Week 1: Hello, (Capstone) world!

Week 1 Materials

• Week 1 Slides

Week 1 Goals:

• EDS 411AB course introduction
  • What are we doing here?
  • What is the time expectation?
  • How will I be evaluated?
  • How do we get help?
• Tell us about your project! 2-minute flash talks
• Write a short paragraph on your project for the Bren website
• Finance team visit - how to use your Capstone funds
• Decide on a project alias
• Define team roles

1:00pm - 1:30pm: EDS 411AB Course Intro

• EDS 411A Course Intro Slides

1:30pm - 2:15pm: Project Flash Talks

Spend 15 minutes creating then practicing a 2 to 3 minute, 4 slide presentation on your project. The 4 slides should be (1) Cover slide, (2) Background, (3) Project motivation (or problem / knowledge gap), (4) Project objective(s). Your group can decide how you break up the presentation - 2 presenters minimum.

Break: 2:15pm - 2:30pm PST

2:30pm - 3:00pm: Write a summary for the Bren website

Each MEDS Capstone project will be featured on the Bren website. Spend ~10 minutes browsing some MESM project summaries to get an idea of what is expected. Then, start drafting your paragraph for the website in the shared document.

Continue to work on your summary after 411A this week. Add a finalized version of your summary to this shared google doc by Monday 1/11 at 5pm. We will then share that document with Melissa Van De Werfhorst (Bren Communications Director) to post your summaries to the Bren website.

Finance - using your group money (3:00pm - 3:30pm)

Members of the Bren finance team will join via Zoom to go over important information about using your Capstone budget & how to use it.

Break: 3:30pm - 3:45pm

3:45pm - 4:00pm: Team alias!

Your team alias - a short, memorable abbreviated name for your project - serves multiple professional purposes, including:

• The directory name on Taylor
• Your group’s email prefix
• Use in MEDS Capstone communication with faculty and staff

Spend 15 minutes brainstorming group aliases. Keep in mind that this will likely be part of a file path, so using good practices for naming things is in your best interest. Some examples of team aliases from previous Bren MESM projects are:

• nadatrace (evaluated opportunities for Nada Groceries to minimize waste)
• worthwhale (economic valuation of whale watching & marine planning in Dominica)
• maricultura (assessed Brazil’s aquaculture potential)
• justhealth (investigated relationships between air quality and diabetes risk in California)

Once you have decided on your team alias, send it to Brad & Kat so they can set up your Taylor directory and group email address.

4:00 - 5:00pm - Define team roles and report back

All teams are required to have a project manager (PM) and communication manager (CM). Other roles should be decided based on project-specific needs and expectations. Discuss with your team - in addition to the PM and CM, what do you think are the most important roles for the success of the project?

Add your proposed roles to this shared doc by the end of the day. You should discuss the proposed roles with your faculty advisor, and make updates to the Googlesheet to finalize your project roles by Friday, January 11th.

What you should do before next week:

• All members should read through the MEDS Capstone Guidelines
• Prepare a first draft of the Team Management Plan section of your Design & Implementation Plan (and feel free to work on other sections!)
• Let Brad & Kat know your team alias ASAP (so they can create your Taylor directory & email)
• Finalize your summary paragraph for the Bren website, add to this shared doc by 5pm on Monday 1/11
• Make sure your project roles are updated on the shared Googlesheet