Examples of past projects • Whether sleep deprivation in the previous night leads to decreased attention in classThe effect of strict parenting in high school on college alcohol consumption • Whether complimenting people make them have positive perception of tasks • How does watching TV affect workout results? 3 Examples of past projects • How does general knowledge about environmental ethics affect individual consumption choice? • The effect of instant messaging on inter-personal relationship 4 Possible topics • Aspects of your life – Academic (performance, confidence…) – Social (sleep, alcohol, game, living group…) – Institutional (Rush, UROP, studying abroad…) • And more… • Be creative 5 Social Networks • Relations or ties necessary for: – Information, Emotional support, Advice • Different kinds of networks – do you want to be in A or B? A B • Strong ties or weak ties? • Study network characteristics (e.g. strength, connection) and effect on outcomes (e.g. information, satisfaction) • Think about – Friendship network, alum network, club network… – Who talks to whom, how frequent, about what… 6 Communication • Effective communication can lead to better motivation, more knowledge sharing, fewer conflicts • How do new media change the way we communicate? • How are these media different from each other? • Think about – Cell phone usage, text message, IM, online activity 7 Innovation • Innovation is key to organization growth & competitiveness • 3 key phases: idea generation, implementation & diffusion • What factors affect creation of new ideas? • What factors affect adoption of new ideas? • What factors affect dissemination of ideas? • Think about – MIT 50K, 100K competition 8 Decision Making •What affects individual decisions? – Bias – Is more choice always better? •What affects group decisions? – Group makeup – Is cohesiveness good or bad? •Think about – Your own choice as a consumer, student, applicant… – The groups you participated in… 9 Pick a topic • Something you care about • Something puzzles you • Something annoys you • Find support from organizations – Student organization, Tech, stores, research center, volunteer group, community service… 10