SFI Lab Student Performance Guidelines and Expectations

This page describes minimum performance standards for working with Dr. Pearce as part of the Building Construction Department/Myers-Lawson School of Construction.

As a graduate student in Building Construction, it is up to you to choose a faculty advisor and research topic for your project and report (P&R), thesis, or dissertation in order to graduate. You may also choose to work with a faculty advisor to complete an independent study. If you would like to work with Dr. Pearce as your faculty advisor, your work must meet or exceed the following minimum standards in order to receive a passing grade. Please contact me at apearce@vt.edu or 540-818-7732 if you have any questions. Note that I am not presently advising students who elect the final exam option. I am particularly interested in working with students pursuing research topics relating to sustainability, diffusion of innovation, organizational change, human-technology interaction, construction education, economics, infrastructure systems, and building materials.

Initial Meeting(s)

Before I accept the responsibility for being your advisor, I expect you to schedule one or more initial meetings with me to discuss your intentions and areas of research interest. In the first meeting, you should be prepared to answer the following questions:

Do you intend to complete a Project and Report (P&R), an independent study, a thesis, or  a dissertation? In all cases, you will be expected to generate high quality work that provides a contribution to the knowledge base in construction, but the level of effort for the P&R is three semester hours vs. six hours for the thesis and several years for a dissertation. A thesis requires an original contribution to basic knowledge and is a good foundation for the Ph.D. dissertation if you intend to continue your education. Thesis and dissertation projects involve collection and analysis of data to answer research questions, while P&Rs involve drawing conclusions or making arguments by analyzing or synthesizing the original work of others. The P&R may be more appropriate for students intending to enter professional practice following completion of the M.S. degree. Independent studies involve the same level of effort as P&Rs (three credit hours) and must follow similar guidelines.

What problem would you like to address in your work? You should come prepared to discuss at least one potential problem you’d like to work on. It’s important to frame your area of potential research as a problem during this meeting. Do some basic homework to find evidence that your problem really is a significant problem. For instance, if you’re interested in construction waste management, find current statistics to describe how much waste is actually generated by the construction industry, what happens to that waste now, and why current practices should change.

What would you hope to contribute at the conclusion of your work? Be prepared to discuss both (a) how the world would be a better place if your problem were solved; and (b) how far you plan to go toward developing a solution within the scope of your P&R/thesis/independent study.

Proposal

After we meet one or more times to discuss your topic and scope of work, you will be required to develop and submit a proposal describing your proposed investigation. This proposal will serve as an informal contract between you and members of your committee about what you must do to successfully complete your P&R, thesis, or dissertation, or between you and me if you are pursuing an independent study. I will work with you to ensure that your proposal is appropriately scoped and covers all requirements necessary for successful completion. By the time I and/or your committee approves your proposal, it should be absolutely clear to you what you must do to successfully complete your work. All proposals should include the following sections:

Introduction – this section of the proposal should concisely describe the general problem you are addressing, along with statistics and evidence to support its significance.

Background – this section should provide a review of what others have done to address the problem and identify gaps that must be addressed or opportunities that present themselves to improve the state of the art.

Problem Statement and Objectives – this section should clearly articulate the specific problem you hope to address within your scope of work, along with concise objectives that describe what your work will achieve if it is successful. If you are pursuing a dissertation, thesis, mini-thesis, or independent study, it should include the specific research questions you will be addressing in your work. If you are pursuing a P&R, it should describe who the users are for your product, and what they will be able to do with it (see Project & Report Deliverables, below). This is the section where you should clearly establish the boundaries and scope of your investigation.

Methodology – this section should describe the approach you will take to achieve the objectives of your work and/or answer your research question. It may include a discussion of the population you will study, sampling methods for data collection, analysis methods for that data, and validation strategies. It should describe your overall research design and the steps you will take to complete your work. If you are pursuing the P&R, it should describe the approach you will take to develop your useful outcome (see Project & Report Deliverables, below).

Expected Outcome(s) and Impacts – this section should define the specific outcomes and deliverables you plan to create from your work, and the benefits and impacts those deliverables will have for their target population. If you are pursuing a thesis or dissertation to answer a specific research question, your impacts should describe how the answer to your research question will enable the world to be better. If you are pursuing a P&R, your impacts should be focused on how your useful outcome will benefit its user base. An independent study proposal may take either approach.

Research Plan – the final section of your proposal should include a schedule for your work that lists all tasks described in your methodology, any required resources needed to complete the work, and milestones for interim and final deliverables. Be sure to include a task for preparation of final submittals, and a milestone for your final presentation.

After you submit and defend the proposal to me and/or your committee, we will review it and recommend changes or enhancements to ensure that it is of a manageable scope and of sufficient quality to meet the requirements for the option you have selected (P&R vs. thesis vs. dissertation vs. independent study). When I/we sign off on your proposal, it then will serve as an informal contract between you and me or your committee to define what you must do to successfully complete your research and receive a passing grade. It’s then up to you to complete the work as you’ve proposed.

Work Process

Throughout the process of completing your research, you will be expected to schedule and attend regular meetings with me (your advisor) and/or other committee members as appropriate for the nature of the work you are doing. When completing a dissertation, it’s appropriate to schedule committee meetings for 30%, 60%, 90%, and punchlist stages of your work, along with a final presentation and turnover of your final product. Students working on theses or dissertations may also elect to schedule regular weekly meetings to discuss progress. Students working on P&Rs or Independent Study typically schedule progress meetings as needed. In pre-completion progress meetings, you will be expected to provide progress reports detailing the following items:

Goals for this reporting period – list the goals you hoped to achieve for this period based on your proposal and schedule.

Progress toward those goals – for each goal, list specific actions taken to achieve the goal and outcomes that resulted.

Issues and concerns – list any issues or concerns that arose during your work that might require changes to the original research plan or that represent unforeseen conditions or findings. These are specific items that we will discuss in the face to face meeting to ensure that your plan is adapted as necessary for successful completion.

Goals for next reporting period – list goals to be achieved between now and the next meeting based on your proposal and schedule. These goals should also include proposed actions necessary to deal with any issues and concerns that have arisen in the project. This section should then be cut and pasted as the first section in your progress report for the next reporting period.

Depending on the nature of your project, it may also be appropriate to submit draft or interim deliverables as detailed in your research plan. Progress reports, along with any draft or interim deliverables, should be submitted electronically no later than 24 hours prior to the meeting to allow time for me to review them before we meet. For P&Rs, theses, or dissertations, please check with each individual committee member to verify (and adhere to!) their preferred lead times for review and preferred format for submittals.

Please note that as part of my contract with you, I commit to review your submittals and be ready to discuss them in our meetings. Likewise, you must commit to prepare those submittals prior to the meeting and be prepared to discuss your progress in the meeting itself. DO NOT WASTE EITHER MY TIME OR YOURS BY SCHEDULING A MEETING FOR WHICH YOU ARE NOT PREPARED. If you have not made the progress you hoped to make, then by all means, RESCHEDULE THE MEETING. I would much rather juggle my schedule to accommodate a new meeting time than to set time aside to meet that is not used well. On the other hand, if you are having problems meeting your goals due to issues arising from the research itself, then feel free to schedule a separate meeting with me to discuss those issues specifically so that we can revise your research plan accordingly.

It is up to you to develop a research plan that is realistic for you and your investigation. The schedule you set is for your benefit alone, and whether you meet that schedule or not is up to you. I will not be upset with you for slipping your schedule – that’s your problem to deal with, and you alone will deal with the consequences of later completion. But I WILL be upset with you if you take up my time in meetings when you have not done your work. Please plan accordingly, and give me at least 24 hours notice if you need to reschedule a meeting.

Deliverables

The final products you are expected to deliver will differ based on which option (P&R vs. thesis vs. dissertation vs. independent study) you elect to pursue. The next sections describe the respective deliverables associated with each option.

Project & Report Deliverables

The project and report requires synthesis and/or analysis of work done by others into a novel product useful to other people. It is also possible to undertake data collection and analysis similar to a thesis, but at a smaller scale, for the P&R. If this is the path you wish to take, see “Special Case: Mini-Thesis” below. There are five primary deliverables for the P&R option, as follows:

1. (1)Annotated bibliography of “Best of Breed” resources – this bibliography should list the best resources/references of work done by others relating to your research topic and should include a proper citation of each work followed by a short summary (3-5 sentences). Where appropriate, it should also include links to or pdf files of the actual resources themselves.
   

2. (2)Product useful to others – this product should be a result of your review and synthesis of the work of others. It may take the form of a tool (such as a web site, software tool, reference matrix, template, etc.), a learning module (including presentation slides, handouts, and other supporting material), a database or collection (e.g., of annotated digital images around a specific topic, of checklist items or best practices, etc.), an introductory guide or “tech tip” describing state of the art and future trends for a topic of interest to practitioners, a detailed literature review and gap analysis that defines research opportunities and needs for a particular area, or other useful outcome that meets the constraints and requirements specified in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction MS Manual. Please note that you should plan to test the usability of this product with actual users as part of your work.
   

3. (3)Manuscript suitable for submittal to a peer-reviewed conference proceedings – Your product should also be accompanied by a write-up detailing the process used to develop the product, in the form of a manuscript suitable for submittal to a peer-reviewed conference proceedings. The manuscript should provide a narrative description of your research problem, background/state of the art, the development process and outcomes of your work, lessons learned, and areas for future work not to exceed 3,500 words or word equivalents, or 8-10 pages single spaced.
   

4. (4)Formal abstract – the abstract should include a title for your work, your name and affiliation(s), and an overview of your research problem, approach, outcomes, and conclusions. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words.
   

5. (5)Final presentation – the presentation should consist of approximately 15-20 minutes of slides that highlight all key sections of the manuscript described earlier. This presentation will be used for your formal P&R defense to your committee and other interested parties.
   

Thesis Deliverables

The thesis option requires investigation of a research question using a formal methodology, and results in a novel contribution to basic knowledge. There are four primary deliverables for the thesis option, as follows:

1. (1)Final thesis – the thesis should follow the official VT guidelines for M.S. theses (see http://etd.vt.edu) and the Myers-Lawson School of Construction MS Manual, and at a minimum must contain a problem description/scope, research question(s), formal literature review and background section, methodology, analysis, findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and future research. It should also include all relevant data and supplementary material as appendices, as well as a reference section and an acknowledgments section.
   

2. (2)Final presentation – the presentation should consist of approximately 30-40 minutes of slides that highlight all key sections of the thesis described earlier. This presentation will be used for your formal thesis defense to your committee and other interested parties.
   

3. (3)Manuscript suitable for submittal to a refereed journal – the manuscript should be a summary of the research and may be a condensed version of the thesis not to exceed 10,000 words or word equivalents.
   

4. (4)Formal abstract – the abstract should include a title for your work, your name and affiliation(s), and an overview of your research problem, questions, approach, findings, and conclusions. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words.
   

All written deliverables should include proper citation of sources using ASCE format (see Author Guidelines at http://www.asce.org) and should be grammatically correct and free of typographical errors. All deliverables should be submitted in both native and Portable Document Format (PDF) forms either via email, on a labeled CD, or using another mutually agreeable mechanism appropriate to the nature of the submittal. For instance, if an outcome of the research is a software tool, delivery of the source code and/or maintenance of the tool on a web site may be appropriate. Likewise, if the work involves development of training materials, exhibits, or other media, hard copy or physical product submittals may be required. If you expect your work to result in products such as these, please speak to me as soon as possible to develop specifications and evaluation criteria for your deliverables to ensure that expectations are managed to our mutual satisfaction.

Special Case: The “Mini-Thesis”

In certain instances, you may wish to attempt to answer a research question that would be appropriate for a thesis, but in a shorter amount of time more aligned with the scope of a P&R. If this describes your situation, you may pursue a “mini-thesis” while being formally registered for a P&R (3 credits). A mini-thesis means that you will be answering a formal research question by collecting and analyzing data, but will not go through the formal defense process associated with a thesis and will complete a more modest scope of work. The mini-thesis requires the following deliverables:

1. (1)Final report – your final report should follow the official VT guidelines for M.S. theses (see http://etd.vt.edu) and the Myers-Lawson School of Construction MS Manual, and at a minimum must contain a problem description/scope, research question(s), formal literature review and background section, methodology, analysis, findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and future research. It should also include all relevant data and supplementary material as appendices, as well as a reference section and an acknowledgments section.
   

2. (2)Final presentation – the presentation should consist of approximately 20-30 minutes of slides that highlight all key sections of the report described earlier. This presentation will be used for your formal project presentation to your committee and other interested parties.
   

3. (3)Manuscript suitable for submittal to a peer-reviewed conference proceedings – the manuscript should provide a narrative description of your research problem, background/state of the art, the methodology and outcomes of your work, and areas for future work not to exceed 3,500 words or word equivalents.
   

4. (4)Formal abstract – the abstract should include a title for your work, your name and affiliation(s), and an overview of your research problem, questions, approach, findings, and conclusions. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words.
   

If you think you might be interested in a mini-thesis, please contact me as soon as possible to set up a meeting to discuss the possibility and agree upon a reasonable scope for your work. You will be expected to meet the same level of rigor with regard to methodology and investigation as a thesis, but the scope of your work will be designed to remain within the constraints of a three hour course requirement.

Dissertation Deliverables

The dissertation option requires investigation of a basic research question using a formal methodology, and results in a novel contribution to basic knowledge. To pursue this option, you must be formally admitted to the Ph.D. program and pass both qualifying and preliminary examinations appropriate to your degree program. There are four primary deliverables for the thesis option, as follows:

1. (1)Final dissertation – the dissertation should follow the official VT guidelines for M.S. theses (see http://etd.vt.edu) and the Ph.D. guidelines for your degree program, and at a minimum must contain a problem description/scope, research question(s), formal literature review and background section, methodology, analysis, findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and future research. It should also include all relevant data and supplementary material as appendices, as well as a reference section and an acknowledgments section. Depending on your preferences, you may also present this document using the manuscript option described in the guidelines for your degree program.
   

2. (2)Final presentation – the presentation should consist of approximately 30-40 minutes of slides that highlight all key sections of the dissertation described earlier. This presentation will be used for your formal dissertation defense to your committee and other interested parties.
   

3. (3)One or more manuscripts suitable for submittal to a refereed journal – the manuscripts should be a summary of the research and may be a condensed version of portions of the dissertation not to exceed 10,000 words or word equivalents. Note that students electing to complete their dissertations using the manuscript option will typically generate three individual refereed journal papers and then combine those papers in a coherent manner with a separate introduction and conclusions to serve as the dissertation.
   

4. (4)Formal abstract – the abstract should include a title for your work, your name and affiliation(s), and an overview of your research problem, questions, approach, findings, and conclusions. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words.
   

All written deliverables should include proper citation of sources using ASCE format (see Author Guidelines at http://www.asce.org) and should be grammatically correct and free of typographical errors. All deliverables should be submitted in both native and Portable Document Format (PDF) forms either via email, on a labeled CD, or using another mutually agreeable mechanism appropriate to the nature of the submittal. For instance, if an outcome of the research is a software tool, delivery of the source code and/or maintenance of the tool on a web site may be appropriate. Likewise, if the work involves development of training materials, exhibits, or other media, hard copy or physical product submittals may be required. If you expect your work to result in products such as these, please speak to me as soon as possible to develop specifications and evaluation criteria for your deliverables to ensure that expectations are managed to our mutual satisfaction.

Independent Study

The deliverables for an independent study will vary based on the nature of the subject being pursued, but at a minimum should equal or exceed the requirements for the Project & Report or mini-thesis. Students interested in pursuing an independent study should contact me as soon as possible to set up a meeting to discuss the possibility and agree upon a reasonable scope for your work.

Questions

If you have any questions about these guidelines, my expectations, or anything else, please feel free to contact me and ask. The best way to reach me initially is email to apearce@vt.edu. The second-best way to reach me is to call me at 540-818-7732. You are also welcome to visit my office any time my door is open, or to schedule a sit-down meeting with me at any time.