Conference Session

Engineering Economy: Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

J. Cunha, University of Alberta

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

problems associated to the energyindustry.To better illustrate the distinction between the two articles let us take as an example the Page 12.11.3papers given to Group 1 (Fall 2005). This group received an engineering economy paperwhich title was “Production Based Probabilistic Economics for Unconventional Gas3.” Thepaper basically analyzed the economics of a producing gas field utilizing probabilisticdistributions for gas production and prices. The second article, “The Middle East and NorthAfrica in a Changing Oil Market4,” analyzed the tremendous changes undergone in theworldwide oil market in the past three decades and its political consequences in

Conference Session

Effective Tools for Teaching Engineering Economy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kailash Bafna, Western Michigan University; Betsy Aller, Western Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

solved by any one of thesemethods. (See Thuesen and Fabrycky, 1989 1 for example.)In the early 1990s, as computer technology advanced, spreadsheet use gradually found its wayinto engineering economy classrooms, pedagogy, and textbooks. Very early presentations onincluding spreadsheets in the teaching of engineering economy included White (1988) 2,Eschenbach, Wiebe, and Yazici (1991) 3, and Eschenbach and White (1992) 4. Noting the Page 12.676.3increasing discussion on spreadsheet use in the engineering curriculum, Alloway (1994) 5advocated the electronic spreadsheet as frequently being “the best choice for both learning andapplying engineering

Conference Session

Engineering Economy: Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeannette Russ, Union University; Doanh Van, Union University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

still relatively new EngineeringCriteria 2000 (EC 2000). While no one suggests that the criteria are perfect, we have found thatthey do indeed allow flexibility to “focus on what is learned rather than what is taught,” asABET asserts in its organizational history.1 The use of current events in the engineeringeconomy course has been one of our direct attempts to encourage student learning, but wereadily admit that using current events is not a particularly novel idea. In fact, others haveintroduced more formalized methods of integrating current events throughout the engineeringeconomy course.2 The main contribution of this paper is to demonstrate how this common-senseelement of teaching engineering economy can be implemented, measured, and

Conference Session

Effective Tools for Teaching Engineering Economy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Ristroph, University of Louisiana-Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

easier than the time honored tradition of manual cheating.This paper examines the foregoing issues by first exploring simple solutions and then progress-ing to more advanced methods. The presentation is based on Microsoft’s widely used Excel soft-ware [1], but other systems can be used as long as they support user-written routines known asmacros to extend their capabilities. For example, OpenOffice.org’s free Calc [2] system has mostof the capabilities of Excel, but it uses a different dialect of Basic for its macro language. EIOf-fice [3] is an integrated office system with a spreadsheet very similar to Excel that uses Java toprogram its macros. Most engineers are familiar with engineering economics, so examples aregiven for that field. The

Conference Session

The Evolution of Engineering Economy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph Hartman, Lehigh University; David Enke, University of Missouri

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

Conference Session

Engineering Economy: Beyond the Classroom

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donald Remer, Harvey Mudd College; Karen Ahle, Raytheon; Kevin Alley, Southwest Research Institute; John Silny, Raytheon; Karen Hsin, Accenture; Elijah Kwitman, Harvey Mudd College; Allison Hutchings, Harvey Mudd College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

projects in industry and government go way overbudget or schedule.1-4 There are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the major reasons is that theengineers did an insufficient job on the estimate. One of the key reasons is that few engineeringstudents get sufficient cost estimation training while they are in college. As a result, manyindustrial and governmental organizations are giving their practicing engineers and engineeringmanagers short courses (one to five days) in cost and schedule estimation. There has been astrong push by companies and government organizations to enhance the cost estimationknowledge and in some cases organizations are requiring their engineers and engineeringmanagers to obtain professional society certifications in cost

Conference Session

Effective Tools for Teaching Engineering Economy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Phil Rosenkrantz, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

redesign of the course to integrateconstructivist approaches for on-line learning environments. Instructional and outcomesassessment data, as well as demographic and tools usage survey data (including the results of alearning styles survey) was collected for each class. This paper will: (1) Compare the before andafter instructional assessment and outcomes assessment data for the course; and (2) Analyze thepatterns of learning tool usage based on demographic variables. Innovative uses of instructionaltechnology discovered along the way will also be presented.The paper is organized into the following parts:1. Introduction2. On-line teaching options, strategies, and considerations3. Teaching strategies and learning activities for

Conference Session

Effective Tools for Teaching Engineering Economy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Ryan, Iowa State University; John Jackman, Iowa State University; Rahul Marathe, Iowa State University; Pavlo Antonenko, Iowa State University; Piyamart Kumsaikaew, Iowa State University; Dale Niederhauser, Iowa State University; Craig Ogilvie, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

students improve their information-reductionskill, we need to assess students’ ability to select relevant information in a realistic problem-solving environment. Therefore, the goals of this study are to: 1. Examine methods for assessing information reduction, 2. Observe changes in information reduction behavior as students solve progressively less- structured problems in an engineering economic analysis course.MethodsThis section describes a web-based system used to administer ill-structured problems andanalysis methods for the data collected.Problem Solving Learning PortalThe Problem Solving Learning Portal (PSLP) is a web-based collaborative environment that wasdesigned to help students improve their problem solving skills using ill

Conference Session

The Evolution of Engineering Economy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gerald Thuesen, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Economy

Division had 83members while the Engineering Economy Committee had 23 members16.At the end of World War II, 1945, there was no Annual Meeting of S.P.E.E. The 54thAnnual Meeting during June, 1946 in St. Louis saw a report of the Committee onRevision of the Constitution and By-Laws. This report printed in the April, 1946 issue ofthe Journal of Engineering Education was unanimously accepted by the Council tochange the name of the society to the American Society for Engineering Education(A.S.E.E.). Page 12.807.7On September 1, 1947, William E. Wickenden died at age 65 only a few hours after hisretirement from Case Institute of Technology. He had been President