Fantasy Senior Design Takes College of Engineering By Storm

Today, The Mugdown brings you an exclusive inside look at the new trend that has been taking over the College of Engineering: fantasy “senior design” leagues. Inspired by fantasy football, fantasy senior design allows students within the College of Engineering to manage a virtual senior design project by drafting several classmates to form a team. A team member can score points based on their weekly contribution to their actual senior design project. 

The method for scoring team members varies between different engineering departments, but most leagues opt to use “Mechanical Engineering Standard” scoring, or MES. Under the MES system, team members will receive points based on the following real-life performance metrics:

• Words contributed to weekly progress reports and overall project report (100 words = 1 point)
• Images or diagrams contributed to reports (Most departments follow the 1 picture=1000 words doctrine, so 1 diagram/image = 10 points)
• Hours spent in the computer lab or workshop (1 hour = 2 points)
• Time spent speaking during presentations (1 minute speaking time = 3 points)
• Grades received on assignments (points earned from an assignment are equal to the assignment’s score on a 10 point basis; e.g. 85 on assignment = 8.5 points)

In addition, many departments add several unique scoring categories based on metrics specific to their own senior design projects. For example, chemical engineering leagues often penalize a team member who causes their process simulation to crash. Similar mistakes and blunders will result in point deductions in other departments as well.

The most common format for fantasy teams is comprised of four starting team member slots and a four person “bench” that can be used to store students who are either speculative adds, out sick, or suspended. As with all fantasy sports, one of the most crucial parts is the league draft. Students are drafted based on a combination of previous academic information, insider knowledge, and wishful thinking. GPA is the common metric for choosing which students are drafted first, and the lucky few with 4.0s almost always get selected first overall. However, what sets apart savvy fantasy players is their ability to leverage personal knowledge of their classmates when selecting team members. 

In fantasy senior design, knowledge is your greatest weapon.

And indeed, there are many cases where GPA doesn’t tell the whole story. Those who are known to have health problems typically are drafted later due to possibilities of being out sick during crucial weeks. Many other variables — including household income, social connections, and average classroom row position — are all taken into account when selecting classmates. 

In fantasy senior design, knowledge is a student’s greatest weapon. There is a growing information market within the College of Engineering where information about classmates is bought, bartered, and sold. Many well-connected students have made good money working as rumor brokers, trading information on their fellow students’ academic performance, study tendencies, personalities, health problems, relationship status, typing words per minute, and more. 

I find it to be incredibly demeaning to be reduced to nothing but my contributions to a single project.

In many cases, this commodification of information has made life harder for students who are just trying to keep their heads down and graduate. One such example is Todd Rodriguez, the consensus first-overall pick in the civil engineering department. “It’s incredibly stressful to have the entire goddamn department analyzing and obsessing over everything I do on this project,” said Rodriguez. “Everyone on my team received death threats once the rest of my class found out that I only spoke for a minute during our midterm presentation. People have also physically prevented me from leaving the computer lab so that I would earn more lab time points. I’m a living and breathing person with my own wants and needs, and I find it to be incredibly demeaning to be reduced to nothing but my contributions to a single project.”

After several months of this treatment, Rodriguez ended up transferring to the University of Texas for his final semester. And his story is by no means unique. Top picks in all departments have similar stories of harassment, threats, and extortion. Many have turned to the faculty and deans for help, and found none at all. In fact, The Mugdown has found that professors and administrators throughout the College of Engineering have fantasy leagues of their own, with large payouts and, in one case, a university hotel suite on the line. 

Editor’s Note: While The Mugdown is not in a position to tell you what you can and cannot do with your free time, we urge anyone playing fantasy senior design to be compassionate and empathetic towards your fellow classmates. When you want to shame an acquaintance for spending less time in the lab than expected or for missing class due to sickness, remember that they’re just trying to survive one of the most stressful classes in college. It may be points in a game, personal pride, or even money on the line to you, but to them, it’s their life. And that has to take priority.

 

— Big Brother Jed