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Instructor: John Thomas
Suggested prior knowledge: Beginning algebra and familiarity working with Excel spreadsheets are highly recommended.
Prerequisites: Restricted to College of Engineering graduate students or Graduate Certificate Engineering (CRTGE) students only.
Semester(s) Offered: See course list

Course Description

Engineering managers hold leadership positions with projects, programs, and strategic initiatives throughout the company that include both technical and non-technical responsibilities. These often involve critical financial decisions about how much to spend, what costs to reduce, and what investments to make. In addition, engineering managers must be proficient in conducting key financial management tasks, such as preparing and maintaining project budgets, leading R&D programs, and maximizing financial returns of product and process development projects.

In this very practical course, you will gain confidence communicating in the language of finance. While finance is a broad topic, this course explores the fundamental principles, practices, and tools of financial management that are most relevant for engineers and technical managers. This includes topics like understanding and interpreting the company’s financial statements, the time value of money and its role in and determining metrics such as NPV and IRR in project valuation, conducting a financial sensitivity analysis, how to establish your department’s annual budget, and how to create a financial business case for an engineering project. The course wraps-up with a discussion of triple bottom line accounting and sustainability reporting as part of corporate risk management.

As a benefit, the tools you’ll learn for your role as business leader are identical to those necessary to manage your own personal finances. Therefore, the course examines investments, retirement planning and the fascinating area of asset allocation.

Skills and Knowledge Gained 

• Learn how to interpret and communicate key financial management concepts, principles, and practices with technical and financial peers, managers, and potential investors.
• Be able to apply financial ratio analysis to assess the financial health of a company and use financial metrics to evaluate the financial viability or value creation of new projects.
• Understand the time value of money and know how to apply capital budgeting methods to select the best projects with the greatest potential return on investment.
• Apply your knowledge to personal finance investments in stocks, bonds and other vehicles.

Why should you take this course? 

This is a very practical course that will enable you to assess the financial health of a business while cultivating the quantitative skills necessary to make optimal financial decisions. In addition, you’ll learn about investment strategies to help you plan, track and achieve your own personal goals for a secure financial future.

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