The focus of Tutorial 10 is peer review. Peer review is a key part of both collaboration and how we vet knowledge within any field. This tutorial will allow you to practice the skill of both helping others generate a better design and argument, as well as helping you to consider peer feedback and how to weigh it.

During this tutorial, your team will talk with another DP team about their current design, and offer constructive feedback. That team will do the same for you. Our goal is for this peer review exercise to be another avenue for you to get feedback on your design in preparation for the final report. Your TA will be in touch to let you know which team you're exchanging drafts with. Email that team either a copy of your preliminary report, or a more recent draft of your design if you’d prefer (and if such a draft exists).

Preparation

To prepare for this tutorial, you’ll read part of the other team’s draft. We’re expecting you to spend 15 minutes reading and making notes on the draft before tutorial (in lieu of watching your normal 15 minutes of videos), and we’ll also give you an additional 15 minutes at the start of tutorial to continue preparing.

Once you have the other team’s draft, read the introduction and system overview with the following questions in mind (in some cases, you may find it useful to read or skim other parts of the draft to answer the questions). These questions should guide your initial feedback for the peer review, though you should also address other issues (concerns and praise) that arose during your reading.

  • Based on the introduction and system overview, what are the design priorities of the system and what technical challenges do they address?

  • In this system, what happens when a battery within a microgrid reaches 0%?
  • What questions do you have after reading the preliminary report?