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-2019/
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: 07/11/2019
- 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. In this case, access and submit the form again.
- What happens if I submit a form twice with the same Registration Code? If I change my mind, or notice a mistake in my submission?
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 generally not possible to go back and change past decisions, so once submitted, answers are definitive and you can’t change your mind. Only in case that, immediately after your submission and strictly before the weekly deadline, you notice that it contains a clear mistake (for example due to a typo or a misclick), you can send an email to giuseppe.pesenti@polimi.it stating the problem.
- What happens if I submit a form after the deadline? If I don’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.
- Is the Game always the same, year after year?
No. While most of the story doesn’t change significantly, the details and figures involved change every year, so that the Game always presents a new challenge and no shortcuts can be taken.
- 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.
