FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FINAL PROJECT GUIDELINES

HCMC CAMPUS SCME101 – CAREER SKILL DEVELOPMENT

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Int’l Business & Trade Dept.
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Semester: I Academic year: 2023 – 2024
Full-time/Part-time: Full Time
Class code: 06, 243

Group Project – with 4-6 members/group

Overview:
The FTU2 Campus Sustainability Challenge: Creative Solution for Campus
Impact is an interdisciplinary project aimed at empowering FTU2 students to develop
innovative and sustainable solutions for campus-wide environmental challenges. Over
the course of eight weeks, students will engage in a dynamic creative problem-solving
process, integrating critical and design thinking methodologies, while guided by
curated readings and self-evaluation components to foster holistic learning and
personal growth. The completion of the project with successful teamwork, report
writing and presentation will also provide opportunities to hone other soft skills
required for the students’ future career.

Part 1 Context - Campus Sustainability Issues Understandings

- Additional Readings:
1. "Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation" by Tom Theis and
Jonathan Tomkin.
2. "Creative Confidence" by Tom Kelley and David Kelley
3. "The Art of Problem Solving" by Russell L. Ackoff

- Discuss the importance of sustainability in higher education.

- Discuss key sustainability challenges faced by universities, such as
waste management, energy consumption, and transportation.
- Conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
Threats) of the campus sustainability efforts.
- Conduct a critical analysis of the FTU2 campus environment,
identifying underlying issues and opportunities for improvement.
- Use the 5 Whys technique to explore deeper layers of causation.
- Create a fishbone diagram to visualize potential root causes.

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Part 2 Problem statements - Empathize and Define
- Additional Readings:
1. "Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations
and Inspires Innovation" by Tim Brown
2. "Critical Thinking: An Introduction" by Alec Fisher
3. "The Sustainable University: Green Goals and New Challenges for
Higher Education Leaders" by James Martin and James E. Samels

- Conduct research on current sustainability initiatives and best practices

in university settings.
- Critically analyze data and identifying opportunities for improvement
within campus sustainability efforts.
- Facilitate empathetic engagement with campus stakeholders through
interviews, surveys, and observations.
- Analyze data collected to define specific sustainability challenges and
prioritize areas for improvement.
- Reframing problem statements to focus on user needs and aspirations.

Part 3
Proposed Solution - Ideate and Prototype with Critical Evaluation
- Additional Readings:
1. "Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and
Brand Value" by Thomas Lockwood
2. "Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know" by
Adam Grant
3. "Thinkertoys: A handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques” by
Micheal Michalko

- Generate ideas through critical analysis of assumptions, challenging

conventional perspectives. Facilitate brainstorming sessions using
techniques like mind mapping or SCAMPER
- Follow a lean approach to developing your problem-solution canvas.

Part 4 Validation Plan – How to implement internal and external

validation campaigns to test the solution
Additional Readings:
1. "Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five
Days" by Jake Knapp
2. "Lean Start-up" by Eric Ries

- How to develop prototypes (with a critical eye towards feasibility,

impact, and ethical considerations)
- How to test prototypes rigorously, questioning assumptions and
seeking evidence to validate or refine ideas (e.g. produce flyers and
organize demo to potential users and buyers to get their feedback, etc.)
- How to iterate on solutions based on critical analysis of feedback and

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 outcomes.

Part 5 Your team - why you are the right team to do the work

- Envision the team profile necessary to launch this project.

- Highlight your team composition, including the core members,
advisors, etc. and their profile as well as method of role allocation.
- Evaluate each member of the team and his/her roles in the project.
Explain the competences and resources that each member has to fulfil
his/her responsibilities in the project.
- Describe the mechanism that enable team members to achieve and
sustain consensus, as well as manage hiccups (i.e. members' drop-out,
conflicts, etc.).
Part 6 A Process Book - documents your working process with
reflection.
Additional Readings:
- “Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods”
by Graham Gibbs
- “Experiential Learning Theory”by David Kolb
Your Process Book should contain the following:
- Document the process in how you have created your report and
presentation.
- When appropriate, demonstrate that you have researched relevant
fields and techniques for your project.
- Self-Evaluation:
+ Reflect on personal understanding of sustainability concepts and
critical thinking skills.
+ Reflect on biases and assumptions influencing the analysis process.
+ Evaluate the depth and breadth of understanding achieved through
empathetic engagement.
+ Assess the effectiveness of critical questioning and evaluation during
ideation and prototyping.
+ Reflect on the ability to challenge one's own assumptions and embrace
intellectual humility.

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Detailed Timeline:
• Weekly presentation (for attendance evaluation)
• Day 13: Submission of the 1st completed version of the project report (20%)
• Day 14-15: Project presentation (20%)
• One week after the presentation: Submission of the final project report (20%)

Evaluation Criteria:
Group Presentation: 10 minutes + 20 minutes for Q&A
Presentation Contents 5.0
Presentation skills 3.0
Q&A section, Eloquence 1.0
Time Management 1.0

- Group Report:
Problem Definition (clear, reasonable, feasible) 4.0
Problem-Solution Fit 3.0
The Team 1.0
Process Log and Reflection 1.0
Format 1.0

Notes:
- File naming format: 2024_Spring_SCME101_Group no._Title of the Project
- All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced. Paraphrased and
quoted material must have accompanying citations. Your document must be
formatted and references cited following FTU guidelines.
- Your written assignment should be no less than 15 pages, not including the title
and references pages.
- Plagiarism in the assignment both directly or indirectly is strictly prohibited
- Formatting: The report is 20-25 pages in length presented in A4 paper, Time
New Roman, font size 13, line spacing: 1.5 lines. The title page should include
the logos of FTU, name of the course, title of the project, group number, names
of group members, instructor, and place and year of publication. (Please refer
to the Report Cover Template provided by FTU)
- The report must contain an abstract, and a table of contents.