INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING ECONOMICS, STATISTICS, AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT: REINFORCING KEY CONCEPTS

摘要

Engineering economics, statistics, and project management are courses which have significant workplace application. Consequently, it is important that they prepare graduates with essential skills which complement the technical engineering content of engineering programs and make new engineers more effective in applying technology and solving problems. These courses are often offered independently and the concepts contained in each are not linked to clearly illustrate how these courses together represent an essential, integrated, and complementary body of knowledge. This presents a lost opportunity in reinforcing concepts in areas such as project valuation, variation in estimates, statistical risk, expected value and similar real world topics which are essential in a project engineering workplace. This paper presents a curricular plan to accomplish integration of key topics in these courses in a focused and effective manner. It begins with examining general concepts in engineering curriculum integration. Next it examines key curricular topics in engineering economics, statistics, and project management courses and maps specific areas which can be reinforced and integrated. Finally, it maps course concepts to the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam and segments FE topics based on those which apply to the Industrial Engineering exam (afternoon segment) and those which are more broadly applicable to the general portion of the exam (morning segment) and other engineering disciplines. The paper contributes to the literature on curricular integration, work place skills, and pass rate for the FE exam.