Engineering Economy: Suggestions To Update A Stagnant Course Curriculum

Abstract

Examining engineering economy textbooks from earlier this century and today reveals that the curriculum appears to be stagnant. This is supported by the fact that the material is virtually unchanged and in a variety of cases, the number of topics covered has actually declined. This may be attributed to an emphasis on economic equivalence and a de-emphasis on the decision process. Unfortunately, this is seen as a disservice to a student that will eventually perform engineering economy studies. This paper suggests ways in which to enhance the curriculum, including teaching engineering economy in the context of decision and design processes and integrating research advances into course material.

A Supplemental Resource For Teaching Engineering Economy

“…This author has promoted the teaching of Engineering Economy in a decision-making context in hopes that students learn the necessary steps to make decisions about capital investments for engineering problems 4 . While teaching in this framework may help students understand the decision-making process, concrete engineering examples are required such that the students can appreciate its application.…”

Incorporating and Assessing Risk Analysis in Undergraduate Engineering Economy Courses

“…Or do we want graduates to be able to examine an investment situation, estimate the cash flow diagram and all relevant information and then make a sound investment decision based on a thorough risk analysis? Previous work 4,9 has called for more risk analysis to be integrated into undergraduate courses. We illustrate how our presented framework can be used to guide teaching and also suggest methods for assessment.…”

A Thesis-based Option for Enhancing Pedagogy in Engineering Economy at the Graduate Level

“…Another pedagogical issue suggested is that the curriculum of the course has failed to move forward with the times and has in fact "become stagnant" [3]; the curriculum being taught now is almost identical to that taught many decades ago. Efforts are being made [4] - [7] to address this issue by introducing computer-based methods, economic simulations and stochastic algorithms in course curricula. However, the main problem lies in the fact that the traditional engineering economy instruction puts more emphasis on routine and trivial calculations and places much less emphasis on the analysis and decision making processes [8].…”