Engineering economy: Bridging the gap between engineering, business, and entrepreneurship

Within the Industrial Engineering curriculum it is the engineering economy course and the main project/ investment decision tools taught in the course that are at the center of each and every business decision made in today's fast paced business world. Company executives have voiced their concerns with the lack of business expertise among engineering students graduating from baccalaureate degree programs. This paper will discuss a new approach taken at Pennsylvania State University that utilizes the required engineering economy course in the industrial engineering curriculum to bridge the gap between engineering, business, and entrepreneurship. The paper will discuss the curriculum overhaul the required engineering economy course in industrial engineering at Pennsylvania State University. A highly successful business and engineering student group has been created as an extension of the required Engineering Economy course. In addition to multiple sponsored case competitions, this paper will discuss the entrepreneurship and business consulting opportunities created by the student group. The success of the new curriculum implementation and the success of the student group and its business consulting initiatives have been widely recognized by the school's industrial engineering alumni and by the National Organization for Business and Engineering (NOBE). Both qualitative and quantitative results of the revamped industrial engineering curriculum, case competition experiences, and the student consulting group will be presented.