EGB387 Engineering Economy and Planning

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2024, Gardens Point, Internal

Overview

In addition to design competence, Engineers require a sound understanding of construction and management principles and engineering economic analysis to fully meet the expectations of employers and the broader community. This unit addressing a complete financial and economic evaluation of project using several evaluation criteria commonly applied in the assessment of engineering project alternatives. This is a construction engineering second major unit and the knowledge and skills developed in this unit will help engineers to think creatively and to understand the decisions required in a project planning and feasibility environments as well as understanding projects within the economic (value and investment) environment. This advanced unit significantly integrates your prior knowledge and skills to effectively perform specific management tasks in typical civil engineering projects.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Describe the different aspects of construction project planning, scheduling, life cycle, diversity and quality at a developed level.
2. Explain the importance of connectivity of construction project time, cost, risk and quality at a developed level.
3. Analyse the construction project alternatives using engineering economy tools at a developed level.
4. Evaluate the economic environment of construction engineering projects for future investments at a developed level.

Content

Learning Approaches

Teaching Mode:
Hours per week: 4
Lecture: 2
Tutorial: 2

As indicated above, the unit progressively develops your exposure to and development of problem solving skills responsive to typical civil engineering projects and related people and issues.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

The assessment will comprise formative assessment (to help you understand how you are progressing in this unit) and summative assessment (to grade your work against expected learning outcomes). Verbal feedback on your assessments will be given to you by your lecturer and tutors during lecture and tutorial classes, and via email and Canvas. 

Assessment

Overview

Assessment includes a group project, individual problem solving tasks relevant to the content and a final exam. 

QUT's Assessment Policy is located at MOPP C/5.1 http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_01.jsp.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Group Project

Solar panels have been installed for many years and the surplus is fed back into the mains.  When times of strong sunlight, the flow of current causes serious problems for the supply Authorities coupled with a heavy draw on supply at times of low solar activity.

A proposal has been developed for this project to use the energy surplus from solar panels to pump water to an elevated dam for later release through a hydro system to generate energy.

Students are required to work in groups to provide a Project Executive Plan  (PEP) covering scoping & schedule, procurement, delivery methodology and stakeholders, safety, aboriginal group consideration, quality, and innovation ideas.

“Care, Share, and Respect” are the important keywords in understanding basic Aboriginal cultures.  Some discussion among these words will be introduced in the lecture and the students are required to reflect these words in the PEP.

Assessment: Problem Solving Task

Students will be tested based on their learning through Problem Solving Task

Assessment: Examination (written)

Final Examination

“If campus access is restricted at the time of the central examination period/due date, an alternative, which may be a timed online assessment, will be offered. Individual students whose circumstances prevent their attendance on campus will be provided with an alternative assessment approach.”

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

Blank, Leland T and Tarquin, Anthony J (2023), Engineering Economy, Mc Graw Hill publisher, Ninth edition. ISBN 978-1-259-25329-4.

Reference book(s)

Project Management Institute (2017), A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide), Newtown Square, Penn., USA: Project Management Institute, Sixth edition. (Call number 658.404 197 /6)
Samson, Danny (2000), Management for engineers, Prentice Hall, Frenchs Forest, NSW 3rd edition

Risk Assessment Statement

In this unit, there are no extraordinary workplace health and safety issues associated with the components of the unit.

Standards/Competencies

This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.

Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competency Standard for Professional Engineer

1: Knowledge and Skill Base

1. 
   Relates to: Problem Solving Task , Examination (written)
2. 
   Relates to: Group Project
3. 
   Relates to: Group Project

2: Engineering Application Ability

1. 
   Relates to: Problem Solving Task , Examination (written)
2. 
   Relates to: Group Project
3. 
   Relates to: Group Project

3: Professional and Personal Attributes

1. 
   Relates to: Group Project
2. 
   Relates to: Group Project