The unraveling of 9 weekly episodes moves the students to perform economic assessments, make decisions under pressure, and develop a few soft skills.
By organizing in teams of 2-3 students, the players are encouraged to develop and improve their team building and teamwork skills, as well as the ability to compromise and agree upon shared decisions. In the fictional story they deal with OPEX, economic forecasts, and manage uncertainties with interpersonal relationships.
Through a combination of entertainment, realistic elements, and competition, the students are exposed to difficult business choices, complex situations, and are encouraged to understand from a different perspective the topics taught in the PSE Course.
Click here for more details and other editions
PSE JOURNAL Issues:
- Issue 1 – Someone’s hiring
- Issue 2 – Things get serious
- Issue 3 – A focused selection
- Issue 4 – Meet the advisor
- Issue 5 – Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
- Issue 6 – Crude oil and snake oil
- Issue 7 – On a collision course
- Issue 8 – A breakthrough development
- Issue 9 – Long-term strategy
- Issue X – All good things come to an end
- PSE-Game 2019 Results
- PSE-Game 2019 Survey
The PSE-Game 2019 edition has ended. Thank you for playing!
]]>About
PSE Game is a competitive game offered as part of the Process Systems Engineering Course at Politecnico di Milano by the PSE-Lab.
The game is a weekly serious-game. Playing the game is optional: participation is not compulsory and bad performance will not affect the final mark. However, the game deals with several topics encountered in the course, which are part of the final oral exam. The game is designed to provide an original, different perspective on some topics that are typical of Chemical Engineering, encouraging the students to autonomously apply the knowledge learnt during the lessons and labs.
The winner team will receive 2 extra points to be added to the PSE Course final mark. Other teams that perform notably well may also receive 1 extra point for the final mark.
The PSE-Game can be played once a year in parallel to the Process Systems Engineering Course lessons. The game is weekly and runs for about 2 months. Each week, on Monday, a new issue of the PSE Journal is published on the webpage: http://pselab.chem.polimi.it/pse-game-2018/
The game is designed in order to be self-contained, i.e. following the team registration, no other resources should be needed but the PSE Journal issues and this FAQ section. Prices, quotations, data about the plant are fictitious and generally will not represent reality nor the plant designed during the labs of the PSE Course. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
In case of questions or issues, send an email to: giuseppe.pesenti@polimi.it
In case of questions that do not deal with the team registration, the answers to the questions received will be published in this section so as to give all the teams the same information. This document will be therefore periodically updated.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Last update: 12/11/2018
- How can I play the game?
In order to play the game you need to be enrolled in the course Process Systems Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. The game can be played in teams of 2-3 people. Each team needs a Registration Code to play, which will be given to you at the start of the course.
- How can I receive the Registration Code?
The Registration Code is entrusted to teams following their registration, at the start of the course. If you skipped the team registration, send an email from your @mail.polimi.it address detailing the identity of all the team members to: giuseppe.pesenti@polimi.it
Registrations are open until the end of the third week (when the issue n3 is published).
- I have forgotten/lost my Registration Code. What should I do?
The Registration Code is confidential and should not be shared. If you forget it, send an email to: giuseppe.pesenti@polimi.it
If you have disclosed, lost or inadvertently published your Registration Code, this could allow other people to impersonate your team while playing the game. In this case, please immediately send an email to giuseppe.pesenti@polimi.it
- I filled the form but didn’t press Submit. Will you still receive my partial submission?
No, we only receive the final submission once the Submit button is pressed – you will see a confirmation page and receive an email. If this didn’t happen, please fill the form again and make sure you submit it.
- What happens if I submit a form with a wrong Registration Code?
The game involves filling weekly forms. As the first step, you are required to insert your Registration Code in order to prove your identity. If you access a form with a wrong code (i.e. an unregistered code), you will still be able to fill and submit it, but the submission will not be considered.
- What happens if I submit a form twice with the same Registration Code?
If a form is submitted twice with the same Registration Code, only the first submission will be considered, as long as it was submitted within the deadline. It is not possible to go back and change past decisions, so once submitted, answers are definitive.
- What happens if I submit a form after the deadline? If I donâ€
t submit a form?
Each form has a submission deadline. Usually you have one week to submit each weekly form: you can submit the form within Sunday of the same week of publication of the journal (i.e. within 23:59 CET of that Sunday). At the end of this period, the forms can still be filled and submitted, but the submissions will not be considered. The deadline of the first form is set at the end of the second week, so that teams that start playing the game later can still catch up and enjoy the experience.
If no submission is received within the deadline with a certain valid Registration Code, that means that the team did not perform any action that week. Teams who skipped a form will still be able to proceed with the game and fill the following forms. Default answers and choices will be considered in case of unsubmitted forms: e.g. no answer, not performing any action, keeping the situation as it is. No exceptions will be made.
- Does the day of submission influence the plant performance, e.g. if the form is submitted on Monday or on Tuesday?
No, it doesn’t make any difference.
As long as the form is submitted within the deadline (i.e. before 23:59 CET on Sunday), the submission is considered in the fiction of the game as if it was a set of decisions, each taken at the right moment of the current week. In case of the management of the plant, for example, the fiction of the game pretends as if the decisions had been taken and submitted at the start of the current week (i.e. on Monday, in the early morning). The submission date and time are only checked for their validity (submission within the deadline) and to pick the first submission in case of duplicate submissions with the same Registration Code.
- What is the goal of the game?
As stated within the fiction of the game, the goal is to have the highest possible funds in your personal account at the end of the game. The final rank – and the final winner team – will only be determined by the funds accumulated by each team in their personal accounts.
- What happens if I run out of funds?
The game is designed so that you can always freely choose any possible combination of options every time you submit a form, regardless of your current funds and your past choices. Even if a team finished up all their funds, they could continue to play, spend more money and end up with a negative balance. In this case, you can consider that Politecnico di Milano would cover for all the costs while the balance is negative.
- When are the issues published?
On Monday morning, roughly between 10 AM and 2 PM.
- Can I play the game even if I am not a student of Politecnico di Milano enrolled in the Process Systems Engineering Course?
Unfortunately, this is currently not possible.
]]>The unraveling of 9 weekly episodes moves the students to perform economic assessments, make decisions under pressure, and develop a few soft skills.
By organizing in teams of 2-3 students, the players are encouraged to develop and improve their team building and teamwork skills, as well as the ability to compromise and agree upon shared decisions. In the fictional story they deal with OPEX, economic forecasts, and manage uncertainties with interpersonal relationships.
Through a combination of entertainment, realistic elements, and competition, the students are exposed to difficult business choices, complex situations, and are encouraged to understand from a different perspective the topics taught in the PSE Course.
Click here for more details and other editions
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About and FAQs
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- Issue 1 – Someone’s hiring
- Issue 2 – Things get serious
- Issue 3 – A focused selection
- Issue 4 – Meet the advisor
- Issue 5 – Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
- Issue 6 – Crude oil and snake oil
- Issue 7 – On a collision course
- Issue 8 – A breakthrough development
- Issue 9 – Long-term strategy
- Issue X – All good things come to an end
The PSE-Game 2018 has ended. We thank all the teams who played the PSE-Game 2018 and publish the final poster with the results of the competition:
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PSE-Lab has devoted great efforts to simulation of industrial and transportation accidents since 2005.
The implementation of AXIM allowed studying in detail the causes, evolution, effects, and consequences of unfavorable accidents allowing to shed light on aspects and features that were originally either unknown or underestimated if not misunderstood.
These are two excerpts that show the modeling approach of PSE-Lab to accident simulation and event reconstruction.
The Viareggio railway accident (June 29, 2009)
The Texas City BP Refinery accident (March 23, 2005)
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At PSE-Lab, we are used to provide our Clients with support for decision-making based on a quantitative and often multidisciplinary approach to the problem.
Our Clients need a clear and well-thought response to their problems that can cover a wide range of topics and subjects.
Our Clients ask PSE-Lab for answering the following questions:
- What is the optimal design layout of a process unit?
- What is the optimal compromise between capital and operating expenditures?
- What are the optimal operating conditions of a specific process unit?
- What is the safety range for the operation of either a chemical process or a process unit?
- What did exactly happen in that industrial/transportation accident?
- Would have we avoided that accident?
- In case of accident what are the consequences on the plant, on the operators, on the environment, on the surroundings?
- We have got this process. It works but we are not sure how it works, if it is completely safe, what are its margins for improvement. Can you help us?
- What is the refresh time for optimizing the learning curve of industrial operators?
- Can you help us with Safety Reports?
- What is the maximum amount of dangerous substances that respects the safety thresholds assigned by law?
- Can you determine the composition, pressure, temperature, flowrate of that stream that is lacking any measurement?
- Can you determine a specific property of my product without running every-time a lab test?
- Can you predict the dynamic evolution of a process unit when some external disturbances occur?
- Can you design a completely new equipment to preserve the technological gap with my competitors?
- Is it possible to understand the economic risk of investing in this technology as a function of market uncertainty and offer/demand fluctuations?
- Are there any means to improve the efficiency of this process unit?
- What is the optimal plant layout to reduce the energy consumption while maximizing the economic revenues?
- How can I reorganize my distribution network to meet the customers’ demand?
- Is it better technology 1 or technology 2 to commercialize product A in country B along a C-year time horizon?
- Can you help me in prioritizing a number of actions according to some decision criteria?
- Can you help determining the effectiveness of current training methods in our organization/industry?
- Can you help in developing Training methods for our organization/industry?
- What is the optimal training method for CROPs and FOPs?
- Can you help us in improving the design of Control Room from Ergonomics perspective?
- How to improve coordination among operators and technology?
- How to evaluate the performance of Operators during normal and abnormal situations?
- How can we avoid abnormal situations and near misses?
This is a list of consultancy subjects that PSE-Lab delivered to past and offers to future clients:
- research support for problem solving
- industrial advice
- analysis and study of specific industrial problems
- accident event reconstruction
- feasibility study for existing or innovative processes
- support to design and simulation
- process analysis and de-bottlenecking
- municipal safety plans
- training methods
- performance assessment
- Human Factors and Ergonomics
DETONIM is a computer program designed to quantify the effects produced by the detonation of solid explosives.
DETONIM is used for the preparation of Safety Reports but also to determine the maximum amount of explosives that can be stored in warehouses/depots in accordance to the safety thresholds.
The effects of detonation are quantified in terms of:
- blast overpressure
- blast impulse
- thermal radiation after the fireball
- seismic wave
- concentration of toxic components
- fragments production
These consequences are compared respect to the features around the epicenter of the explosion to verify if safety thresholds are respected. In case of violation of the safety thresholds DETONIM allows determining the new maximum amount of solid explosive that can be stored in the warehouse/depot/process room/lab.
Some of the solid explosives considered in DETONIM are:
- TNT
- RDX
- Compund B
- PETN
- PSF
- HMX
- ANFO
- Ammonium perchlorate
- Ammonium nitrate
The solid explosive can be either loose or inside weapons (e.g., bombs, bullets, grenades, missiles).
The warehouse/depot can be either at or below the ground level and can be protected by an embankment to reduce the projection of fragments and absorb a fraction of the released energy.
Keywords
- EC Seveso Directives
- D.Lgs. 334/99 and D.Lgs. 238/2005
- Safety Reports
- Solid explosives
- TNT, RDX, ANFO, PCLA, AMMO, HMX, PETN, PSF
- Demil and pyrotechnic activities
- blast, overpressure, impulse, radiation, seismic wave, fireball, toxic compounds, fragments
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Field Operators can thus exploit some of their senses, i.e. sight, sound, and touch (seldom smell) to crosscheck the perception that is formed by the interpretation of field data from sensors. Generally, there is a frequent coordination among Field Operators and Control Room Operators to carry out both conventional and unconventional operations of chemical plants such as: start-ups, shutdowns, grade changes, in-the-field monitoring, safety assessment, and remote reporting.
Abnormal situations may lead to near misses and even to severe accidents, which can result in production loss and even in casualties and fatalities. As soon as an abnormal situations happens, a problem-to-be-solved is raised and the need for re-planning the operations becomes essential. In order to respond to an abnormal situations, operators should demonstrate problem-detection skills and rapid re-planning strategies.
PSE-Lab provides services for Operators’ Training to enable them overcoming the abnormal situations according to the best-possible way and keeping the system/process near to the optimal setpoints (as shown in the figure below).
PSE lab offers Safety Training by integrating and incorporating the expertise from Human Factors, Control, Optimization, and Modeling and Simulation developed over years.
Safety Training includes several features, some of them are:
- Training for handling Abnormal Situations
- Training for handling Accident Scenarios
- Training for Team Coordination
- Training for technical and non-technical staff coordination
- Training for improve Situation Awareness
- Training for improve Distributed Situation Awareness
- Job Allocation support for safer operations
- Performance Assessment of Training outcomes
Every task demands difference cognitive processes. One shoe fits for all is not the answer to the development of Operator Performance Indicators. Thus, OPIs should be subjective to the processes and tasks. In addition, a weighing criteria among OPIs makes the assessment reliable and consistent.
The software developed in PSE lab i.e., Performex, integrates both Key Performance Indicators and Operator Performance Indicators.
]]>Development of Key Performance Indicators is challenging as various contributes/attributes shall be considered which can satisfy the complex nature and intrinsic diversity of chemical processes.
In PSE Lab, we devise KPIs for any given system/process and find consistent weighing criteria to satisfy the demands of the industry (safety and profits). These KPIs are then integrated to Performance Assessment algorithm which constitutes the software called Performex.
Performance Indicators based on Human Factor constructs are called Operator Performance Indicators.
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OTS is the acronym of Operator Training Simulation.
We developed an OTS for thermal treatment of toxic wastes to train the plant operators involved in critical operations relative to contaminated soils, chemical weapons, and hazardous substances.
The availability of a dedicated software allows simulating the plant behavior as a function of different input parameters that can span from the quantity and quality of solid wastes to be disposed of to external disturbances produced by unexpected/abnormal events.
An advanced user can also modify some specific features of the process units that describe the plant layout as shown in the following parameters window:
This OTS is also connected to other research and work activities in the field of Training and Performance Assessment of industrial operators.
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Performex is a software which evaluates the performance of Operators in a systematic, hierarchical, consistent way resulting in quantitative and qualitative data in real time.
The observations and decisions made my humans/trainers are subjective and are function of various parameters for instance emotional states, experiences, experiences on the plant site, impression of trainee, and trainee-trainer relation. Thus,  expertise are developed in our PSE lab to overcome the limitations of existing Performance Assessment methodologies.
The distinct features of Performex to assess the performance based on hierarchical structure, Key Performance Indicators, Operator Performance Indicators, that are put together with systematic internal weighing, make it an exclusive product. Other technical details of Performex can be found here. A representation of Hierarchy is shown in the following figure.
Once Performex is applied to a specific industrial procedure in a chemical plant (for instance the catalyst-injectors switch procedure) it allows measuring and assessing the performance of the operator that run the sequence of actions as shown in the following figure:
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