Sit in on: Engineering Economy

08/22/2019 2:01 AM

As part of our series of remarkable Bradley courses, we take a look at an engineering class that helps students make those financial calls.

You’re taking: Engineering Economy, a course that provides a primer on analyzing the cost-effectiveness of engineering decisions.

Your Professor is: Regina Pope-Ford, assistant professor in the industrial and manufacturing engineering and technology department. 

You’ll get an intro to: Value Engineering. Students also learn the effect interest can have on financial decisions, as well as how to use mathematical models to help make investment decisions throughout the life cycle of a product. “We look at how to make a decision, based on the information you have and in terms of the future,” said Pope-Ford. “Is this a worthwhile investment?”

Who should take the course: Though mostly engineering majors take this course, Pope-Ford said it is applicable across fields. “I emphasize that the class is also about personal decision-making and how those skills might be useful to them in a job later on.” 

You’ll do word problems: That are focused on real-life scenarios. “I like to do exercises that we can apply to our daily lives—one example is looking at how to manage an endowment. You can actually figure out how much money is needed to make sure that endowment is there perpetually, and how to live off the interest or award scholarships based on interest earned,” Pope-Ford said. “If you focus on something students can relate to, they will know this is not just some abstract mathematical model that has no use outside of the course. They know they can go on to another field and use the lessons from this class.”

You apply theories beyond the classroom: By learning how to manage even personal investments. “Another typical word problem I might do is ask students if they should invest in buying this particular townhouse versus saving money for another investment or keeping it in the bank,” Pope-Ford said. “What if you want to be a millionaire by the time you are 60? If you’re 21 right now, how much money do you need to put away, how much money can you put away? What interest rate do you need to secure?” The same principles apply to business decisions.

What your classmates are saying: “The biggest thing I took away from the class is that it is not as easy as just writing a check when a company wants to invest in something,” said Matt Struttmann ’20. “They have to run tons of calculations to see how worth it the new item can be. They then have to determine if their money can be used in a better investment. There are many different factors that have to be taken into consideration when a company is deciding whether they should invest in something. I can see the real world examples given in this course being very useful for students when they go into their careers following college.”