Course Syllabus

Instructor Contact

Course Information

Method

Class periods will include lectures, class participation, individual presentations, and team presentations. A case study approach will be used in the class. Case analysis and synthesis will be used throughout the course. Analysis will include considerations of operations and competitive strategies; cost, schedule, and design metrics; technical professional individual and organizational environment issues; and technology management. Students are expected to be prepared and discuss all assigned work in class.

Class periods will include lectures, class discussions, homework problems, and possibly individual presentations.   This course is a spreadsheet intensive class.  We will use some in class time to reinforce the capabilities of Excel.  This is a very hands-on class in which students will attempt all of the homework problems as part of the lecture periods.  They will be required to ultimately complete these homework problems outside of the classroom. Students are expected to be active participants in the course and to apply the concepts from this class to their workplace.

An important element of this class is the problem-solving sessions.  Material will be presented in a lecture format and then students will work individually or in small groups to reinforce learning through solving problems.  

An organizational and cooperative learning teaching approach will be used throughout the semester. Cooperative learning involves the instructor and students working together on discussions, assignments, and projects. We'll use organizational/cooperative learning as a model we can use for group work/learning in the work place. Organizational learning involves routine feedback and assessment of the learning process.  Our learning process will focus on:

1. Learn the Foundational Basics & Theory
2. Learn from Leaders Up Close
3. Learn About Emerging Topics
4. Apply to a Multi-Company Group Project
5. Apply to the Workplace through Corporate Applications
6. Apply to Support Your Peer’s Growth & Development
7. Reflect to Make It Personal.

Further details will be described as we progress through the semester.

Course Objectives

The overall course objective is to increase the student’s ability to deliver a project within cost expectations and to make decisions within the context of sound economic analysis.  This objective is met by understanding the technical underpinning of engineering economic and simulation based costing analysis, understanding how project decisions impact the organization’s profit/financial health, and the role of life cycle costing.

This purpose of this course is to provide the students with the following capabilities:

Objective 1:  To apply modern software packages to conduct analysis of real-world economics-based decisions,

Objective 2:  To understand the technical underpinning of engineering economic analysis,

Objective 3:  The ability to apply the appropriate analytical techniques to a wide variety of real-world systems,

Objective 4:  To utilize advanced cost estimating techniques to assess risk in cost analysis, and

Objective 5:  To summarize and present the analysis results in a clear and coherent manner.

Required Texts

The following resources will be used:

• Farr, John V. and Faber, Isaac, Engineering Economics of Life Cycle Cost Analysis, CRC Press, https://www.crcpress.com/Engineering-Economics-of-Life-Cycle-Cost-Analysis/Farr-Faber/p/book/9781138606784
• @Risk and PrecisionTree Software, Student Version 
• Kahneman, Daniel, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Macmillan, 201

Class Handouts

A series of professors notes will be provided.

Evaluation and Grading

The grading scales shown below will be used to calculate your grades for this course.

Missed Assignments/Make-Ups/Extra Credit

Assignments must be turned in on time.  Exceptions must be negotiated with the professor ahead of time.

Attendance Policy

Attendance is expected at all sessions.  Exceptions must be negotiated with the professor ahead of time.

Zoom Sessions

Because of the continued remote instruction requirement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this course will use Zoom for some synchronous (“real time”) class meetings. Meeting dates and times will be scheduled through Webcourses@UCF and should appear on your calendar,

Please take the time to familiarize yourself with Zoom by visiting https://cdl.ucf.edu/support/webcourses/zoom/ . You may choose to use Zoom on your mobile device (phone or tablet).

Things to know about Zoom:

• You must sign in into my Zoom session using your UCF NID and password.
• The Zoom sessions are recorded.
• Improper classroom behavior is not tolerated within Zoom sessions and may result in a referral to the Office of Student Conduct.
• You can contact https://cdl.ucf.edu/support/webcourses/ if you have any technical issues accessing Zoom.