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All research projects need a forward path method for performing the investigation, making findings and reaching conclusions. In addition, project methodology must include methods that test the truth of the knowledge claimed to have been developed through the project. We address the specific issue of validation in thesis projects in systems engineering (SE) programs where the intended outcome is either an application of SE method or an investigation of a topic in SE. We present red‐teaming (RTing) as a validation method for results of SE research. We discuss two case studies of thesis projects which used a RTing method to evaluate a proposed method for doing something. From this we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the RTing method in thesis projects and provide guidelines for use of RTing as a project outcomes evaluation method. We conclude RTing is a useful method to evaluate a thesis project which generates a design or a method because it uses a method not directly influenced by the student's assumptions in the design of the project. The RTing method is constrained by the challenges of finding willing red‐team (RT) members, project schedule, and the RT member's knowledge of the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the results obtained for the affective engagement of students with systems thinking (ST). In prior work, the authors have developed and validated a questionnaire instrument for measuring affective engagement of undergraduate engineering students with ST. This paper presents results obtained when the questionnaire was used with undergraduate students. Two surveys with different versions of the questionnaire, one using positive grammar questions only and the other using a mix of positive and negative constructs, were used to measure the students’ engagement with ST and its relationship with gender, age, and work experience. Each questionnaire version was applied to a different sample, the first, 186 participants, completed the positive grammar version, and, the second group of 163 completed the mixed version. The results show that participants in both studies valued ST in each of the three dimensions of the ST construct. Statistical tests confirmed no significant gender differences in either study. Student engagement with the practical dimension of ST was shown to vary, with statistical significance, with groups of age, years of work experience, and country of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]