SYLLABUS

Contact Information:

  Lecture     ENGR 304  
  MWF: 8:00 - 9:00 AM  
  Lecturer     Joseph Picone, Professor  
  Office: EA 703A  
  Office Hours: (W,F) 10:00 - 12:00 PM  
  Phone: 215-204-4841  
  Email: picone@temple.edu  
  Skype: joseph.picone  
  Social Media     https://www.facebook.com/groups/temple.engineering.engr3096/  
  temple.engineering.engr3096@groups.facebook.com  
  Email     http://groups.google.com/group/temple-engineering-engr3096  
  temple-engineering-engr3096@googlegroups.com  
  Website     http://www.isip.piconepress.com/courses/temple/engr_3096  
  Textbook     John A. White, Kenneth E. Case, David B. Pratt
  Principles of Engineering Economic Analysis, 6th Edition  
  John Wiley and Sons, Inc.  
  March 2012, Hardcover, 928 pages  
  ISBN: 978-1118163832  
  URL: Economic Analysis (6th Edition)  
  Prerequisites     Junior-level standing (60 credits or more)  


Lecture Grading Policies:

  Item  
  Weight  
  Exam No. 1     10%  
  Exam No. 2     10%  
  Exam No. 3     10%  
  Final Exam     20%  
  Homework     10%  
  Writing-Intensive Homework     20%  
  Quizzes     20%  
  TOTAL:     100%  


There are two main goals of this course. First, we want you to develop a thorough understanding of the economics of engineering. Many of you will function in a project management capacity at some point in your career (earlier than you think). You will be asked to estimate the cost of a project and/or the price of a product. You will be asked hard questions when justifying your program, such as what will be my return on investment? Why should I invest in this technology? The answers often will be sobering. This course will prepare you for these responsibilities.

A second goal is to prepare you for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. We will assign homework problems that are taken from previous FE exams, and cover material related to this exam.

A third goal, since this is one of the writing-intensive courses in your curriculum, is to develop your ability to communicate. We will do this through a series of writing assignments that involve analyis of real-world engineering problems from an economic point of view.

Unannounced quizzes will be given periodically throughout the course to encourage you to attend lecture classes and keep up with the daily work. If you miss a quiz without a prior excuse from the instructor, you receive a zero for that quiz with no exception. Make-up quizzes will not be given. The same policy applies to in-class exams and the final exam as well.

Exams will be closed books and notes. You will be allowed one 8.5"x11" double-sided sheet of paper for notes. You will also be allowed to use Microsoft Excel on your laptop. The exam problems will be unique and build on concepts covered in the lecture, textbook, etc. They will not be identical to the homework problems, but instead will involve integration of the same material. Mastery of the homework is essential to passing the exam.

Homework solutions will be prepared in an 8.5"x11" notebook. You are required to use a three-ring binder and submit your solutions on loose leaf paper. The reasons for this will become clear as the semester progresses.

Students are expected to prepare detailed solutions to the homework and maintain these in this notebook. The instuctor will periodically collect these notebooks and grade your solutions. Students can collaborate on homework solutions, but the solutions you provide must be unique. Grading will take into account the accuracy of your solution as well as the quality of your explanation. Simply providing answers with no explanations gets no credit.

Lecture Schedule:

The lecture component of ENGR 3096 meets three times a week and will cover the following topics:

  Class  
  Date  
  Sections  
  Topic(s)  
1
01/22
   1.1 - 1.3     Ten Principles of Economic Analysis  
2
01/24
   1.4 - 1.6     Systematic Economic Analysis  
3
01/27
   2.1 - 2.4     Cash Flow Diagrams, Simple and Compound Interest  
4
01/29
   2.5     Multiple Compounding Periods  
5
01/31
   2.6 - 2.8     Complex Cash Flows  
6
02/03
   3.1 - 3.3     Types of Loans and Loan Payments  
7
02/05
   3.4     Real Estate Loans and Annual Percentage Rate (APR)  
8
02/07
   3.5     Deferred Loan Payments and Interest Calculations  
9
02/10
   3.6     Retirement Planning and Equivalence  
10
02/12
   3.7 - 3.10     Bonds and Variable Interest Rates, Review  
11
02/14
   4.1, 4.2     The Planning Horizon, Minimum Attractive Rate of Return  
12
02/17
   4.3, 4.4     Managing Risk Using WACC  
13
02/19
   Exam No. 1     Chapters 1 - 3.5  
14
02/21
   5.1, 5.5     Present Worth Analysis  
15
02/24
   5.5 - 5.10     Capitalized Worth, Payback Period  
16
02/26
   6.1, 6.2     Future Worth, Single Alternative  
17
02/28
   N/A     MS Excel Review - Part I  
--
03/03
   Spring Break  
--
03/05
   Spring Break  
--
03/07
   Spring Break  
18
03/10
   N/A     MS Excel Review - Part II  
19
03/12
   6.3 - 6.6     Future Worth: Multple Alternatives  
20
03/14
   7.1 - 7.3     Annual Worth  
21
03/17
   7.4 - 7.7     Capital Cost Recovery  
22
03/19
   8.1, 8.2     Internal Rate of Return - Single Alternative  
23
03/21
   8.3     Rate of Return Analysis  
24
03/24
   8.4 - 8.A     Other Rate of Return Metrics  
25
03/26
   9.1 - 9.6     Straight-Line and Declining Balance Depreciation  
26
03/28
   Exam No. 2     Chapters 3.5 - 7  
27
03/31
   9.7 - 9.C     MACRS and SYD Depreciation  
28
04/02
   10.1 - 10.3     Tax Concepts  
29
04/04
   10.4 - 10.10     After Tax Cash Flows  
30
04/07
   11.1 - 11.3     Replacement Analysis: Opportunity Cost  
31
04/09
   11.4 - 11.6     Replacement Cost: Exchange  
32
04/11
   12.1 - 12.3     Inflation  
33
04/14
   12.4 - 12.6     After Tax Analysis With Inflation  
34
04/16
   N/A     Review - TVOM  
35
04/18
   N/A     Review - MARR  
36
04/21
   N/A     Review - Excel Built-In Functions  
37
04/23
   13.1 - 13.3     Sensitivity Analysis  
38
04/25
   13.4 - 13.A     Risk Analysis  
39
04/28
   Exam No. 3     Chapters 8 - 12  
40
04/30
   14.1 - 14.A     The Public and Regulated Sectors  
41
05/02
   15.1 - 15.7     Capital Budgeting  
42
05/05
   16.1 - 16.6     Estimating Cash Flows  
42a
05/05
   1.1 - 16.6     Review  
43
05/14
   Final Exam (08:00 - 10:00 AM)     Comprehensive  


Please note that the dates above are fixed since they have been arranged to optimize a number of constraints. You need to adjust your schedules, including job interviews and site visits, accordingly.

Homework:

The homework schedule is as follows:

  HW  
  Due Date  
  Item(s)  
1
01/31
   1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6,  
  FE 1.1, FE 1.3, FE 1.9, FE 1.10, FE 1.11  
2
02/07
   2.4, 2.6, 2.15, 2.16, 2.22, 2.28, 2.31, 2.36, 2.44, 2.59,  
  FE 2.1, FE 2.3, FE 2.5, FE 2.8, FE 2.9, FE 2.11, FE 2.14  
3
02/14
   3.2, 3.6, 3.14, 3.20, 3.28, 3.33, 3.40, 3.46, 3.56, 3.59,  
  FE 3.1, FE 3.4, FE 3.6, FE 3.9, FE 3.11, FE 3.13  
4
02/21
   4.4, 4.7, 4.10, 4.14, 4.18, 4.27,  
  FE 4.2, FE 4.4, FE 4.5, FE 4.9, FE 4.11, FE 4.13  
5
03/14
   5.4, 5.9, 5.17, 5.25, 5.52, 5.69,  
  FE 5.2, FE 5.4, FE 5.6, FE 5.8  
6
03/21
   6.2, 6.4, 6.31, 6.46, 6.58, 6.65,  
  FE 6.3, FE 6.4, FE 6.6, FE 6.9  
7
03/28
   7.4, 7.6, 7.14, 7.17, 7.60, 7.65,  
  FE 7.1, FE 7.2, FE 7.3, FE 7.6  
8
04/04
   8.12, 8.15, 8.20, 8.38, 8.63, 8.75  
  FE 8.2, FE 8.3, FE 8.8, FE 8.10  
9
04/11
   9.9, 9.11, 9.23, 9.25, 9.31, 9.49  
  FE 9.1, FE 9.7, FE 9.9, FE 9.10  
10
04/18
   10.5, 10.10, 10.19, 10.30, 10.42, 10.51  
  FE 10.1, FE 10.3, FE 10.7, FE 10.9  
11
04/25
   11.7, 11.8, 11.14, 11.29  
  FE 11.1, FE 11.3, FE 11.4, FE 11.7  
12
04/25
   12.13, 12.14, 12.30, 12.49  
  FE 12.4, FE 12.5, FE 12.9, FE 12.10  
13
05/02
   13.5, 13.6, 13.12, 13.30  
  FE 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5  
14
05/02
   14.6, 14.12  
  FE 14.3, 14.4  
15
05/02
   15.2, 15.6  
  FE 15.9, 15.11  
16
05/02
   16.3, 16.6  
  FE 16.6, 16.8  


The writing-intensive homework schedule is as follows:

  HW  
  Due Date  
  Item(s)  
1
02/10
   The Syracuse University Football Stadium  
2
02/24
   The 2014 Winter Olympics  
3
03/17
   The Nicaragua Canal  
4
04/07
   Rental Properties  
5
04/29
   Car Ownership: Buy vs. Lease  


Resources:

The resources link on the course web site includes a number of useful resources for the course including document templates. We will make extensive use of Microsoft Excel in this course. You will need to be familiar with a few basic capabilities of Excel. If you are not comfortable using Excel, please review the following resources: It is also possible to do sophisticated financial analysis in MATLAB, which all Temple students have free access to. For more information, please visit the MathWorks web site. In this course, we will focus on using Excel.

University Policy Statements: