Course Prep Notes
INSY 6600 // Engineering Economic Systems

This course is traditionally offered every Spring and Summer semester. It is a required course for all INSY graduate programs (MS, MEM, Ph.D.). Given the popularity of the MEM program, a large portion of the class enrollment is now online students. In the past, it was also available to undergraduate students (INSY 5600), but that is not currently an option.

Delivery

Our goal is to provide the same level of instructor interaction for all students (on-campus and remote learners) that attend live lectures. Attendance to the live lectures is strongly encouraged, but not required. Students that prefer to participate asynchronously will watch recordings of the simulcast lectures, which are made available to everyone for review.

Preparation

Though we do not enforce any prerequisites for enrollment, this class assumes that the students have had an undergraduate course in Engineering Economics (or an equivalent Finance class).

Typically, such courses cover the following topics:

•  Time Value of Money
•  Interest and Loans
•  Inflation
•  Present Worth Analysis
•  Annual Equivalence Analysis
•  Rate of Return Analysis
•  Benefit-Cost Analysis
•  Depreciation
•  Taxes
•  Project Cash Flow Analysis

Note: Don’t confuse this with the discipline of social science that studies “the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.” Instead, Engineering Economics is “concerned with the use and application of economic principles in the analysis of engineering decisions.” The first 3-4 weeks of the course will include, among other things, a brief and very accelerated review of these topics listed above.

Following that review, an exam similar to the undergraduate final is administered to assess your understanding of these fundamental concepts. If you have not had undergraduate engineering economics or took it long ago, we strongly recommend that you spend some time preparing. You can download a copy of the undergraduate version of the class text, Fundamentals of Engineering Economics (FEE) by Dr. Chan Park, and some sample problems with solutions at the following link: https://aub.ie/insy6600Prep (Dropbox ZIP download).

The textbook we use in the class, Dr. Park’s Contemporary Engineering Economics, 7th Edition. It is an excellent text and does include some overlap with FEE.

In addition to those resources, you will find many others online. Below are a few YouTube playlists designed to prepare students for the Engineering Economics section of the EIT / FE / PE exams: 

• Playlist of short Engineering Econ Videos by topic
• Entire channel on Engineering Econ
• Single longer video on Engineering Econ topics

Use whatever mix of sources (including our class lectures and problem review/prep sessions) that works for you to develop competence in the topic areas identified above, and confidence in your ability to do problems like the ones included in the preparatory materials. That will prepare you for the initial exam and give you a strong footing for the rest of the class.