The studio approach to teaching the craft of modeling

Successful applications of MS/OR depends on striking a balance between the science of MS/OR (its tools and a body of related technical knowledge) and the craft of MS/OR, which is a much less well-defined collection of practical skills. Many observers note that the teaching of MS/OR has emphasized the scientific aspects of the field to the near exclusion of the craft aspects. The major focus has been on the tools of MS/OR: linear programs, decision trees, queueing models, and so on. But for the practitioner, the tools or models themselves are only part of a broader modeling effort. Successfully teaching the craft of modeling has been a long-term challenge in MS/OR. In this paper, I describe one successful approach, called the ‘studio approach’, to teaching the craft of modeling to practitioners. This approach resembles the way other arts such as painting or architecture are taught. I explore the analogy between teaching the craft of modeling by first examining how the arts are taught, and then comparing how modeling is taught in a studio setting. One of many interesting connections between these two domains lies in the development of a specialized language by which the teacher communicates his or her craft to the student. I propose a number of modeling heuristics, or rules of thumb, which begin to capture some of the language of the practising modeler.