Project Technoeconomic Analysis and Operational Research aims & outcomes
The today’s dynamic and unpredictable business environment, in which civil engineering projects are carried out, requires a systematic and holistic approach for the decision making. From the one hand, we have the economic impact and consequences of technical decisions, i.e. the level of resource consumption, the expected yield, and on the other hand the optimization of business performance such as revenue, profits, costs, resource management, etc. The aim of this course is to introduce the students to the basic concepts of financial & technical analysis and some of the operational research methods that are used in engineering and management. On successfully completing this course unit, students will be able to: Calculate and compare current and future economical values of products, Perform a financial appraisal of a project and determine if it is financially viable, Have an understanding of how operational research techniques can be applied to engineering decision-making (resource allocation; production scheduling; environmental risk minimisation; transport planning), Use standard linear programming, integer programming, dynamic programming techniques, etc., Ability to use software to quickly prototype mathematical programming models relating to engineering problems, Utilise skills in optimisation, decision-making, and stochastic methods.