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A US university professor has been using zombie apocalypse scenarios to teach engineering students how to better manage supply chains and industrial operations.
The introduction to the Missouri University of Science and Technology's (MST) Operations Research course is taught to third and fourth year undergraduates studying industrial engineering and management. The course covers how computing tools, methods and techniques can be used to analyse data and optimise the management of supply chains and large industrial operations.
Ivan Guardiola, an associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at MST, developed the “zombie doomsday” scenario to improve students' level of engagement in the Operations Research course during 2012's autumn term.
Guardiola, who describes himself as “a fan, to some extent” of the zombie genre, said: “At the time, shows like ‘The Walking Dead’ were really popular, and I thought the zombie apocalypse storyline had all the elements of a case study to teach students the management science techniques of this course.
“I wanted students to understand that their decisions have consequences. Operations research is all about optimisation. The whole class is about understanding the techniques of optimisation. This was the perfect project for helping to teach those principles.”
The course teaches students to find solutions to logistical problems, such as determining the least expensive way to route materials to a factory, or to transport a product from one part of the globe to another.
A survey of students at the end of the course showed that most thought the approach helped them learn the subject, and students on average made better grades in the 2012 course than those in the previous year’s Operations Research class. The results of the experiment were published in September's edition of the journal “Quality Approaches to Higher Education” and be read in detail here.
“Overall, through something as simple as a story line, students felt more engaged and came to class with many questions regarding formulation techniques, solution methods and interpretation of results,” Guardiola writes.
The course manual, titled “Zombie Apocalypse: Optimizing Survival” outlines an evolving story that begins with a zombie invasion of the MST campus. The 21 students enrolled in the course are the only known survivors. They take refuge in the campus’s student centre, while some 450 living dead approach their enclave.
The manual guides students through a series of situations and options that require them to determine the best choices for their own and their classmates’ survival. Options such as “fortify or flee” are offered and students decide whether to trade-off a loss in survivor numbers against the use of time and materials. For example, building a fire moat around the centre will take 15 hours per section and each section destroys 22 zombies on average. However, turning empty vehicles into exploding cars will take out 25 zombies per car, but will take up to 20 hours each to build.
Later scenarios require students to calculate the best route to relocate and the development of a zombie antidote made from limited supplies until they calculate how long it would take to rid the world of zombies.
While the 19 students who completed the course “had mixed opinions when it came to time and value, as many believed it took more time than it was worth”, Guardiola still believes the project was a success.
“The lesson learned from an educator’s point of view was that students require practice, specifically opportunities to employ what they have learned from their lectures, texts or homework into problems that are not always clear,” he writes.