Many engineering students find after leaving collage that
the numerical analysis tools that they were familiar with are not available in
the office environment and are left with no means to do engineering analysis
with the tools they knew well. What they often overlook is that there is a
powerful tool sitting right in front of them - Excel.
Excel is commonly used in the industry for business applications
and is seldom seen as an engineering tool. However, it is a very versatile
application that can be used as a powerful platform for running may engineering
and scientific applications. This may not be obvious at a first glance and it
was certainly not to me when I began my engineering career. At that time, I
never looked at Excel as anything beyond a typing and basic maths tool. But
over time, I learned to appreciate its power and versatility. I have built many
practical engineering applications for diverse engineering applications such as
process monitoring, process visualization, control loop simulation, project
costing among others. Many of these applications are being used in my
workplace, both past and present. I've learned a lot of spreadsheet tricks
through experimentation, books and the internet.
It is possible to do model and solve a wide variety of
engineering problems using Excel. Knowing the basics of solving linear and
differential equations is sufficient to get started. These, along with an
optimizer like solver can handle many engineering design problems.
To provide a smooth transition from academics to industry,
it would also help if the use of Excel is encouraged in universities. Many
academic engineering problems can be easily modeled and worked out in Excel.
Such modeling skills will be of use in both engineering and management careers.
Engineering professionals are often involved in business roles like supply
chain analysis, project costing and production optimization. Excel is the workhorse
of the business world and an early exposure to it will be of great value to
engineering students throughout their career.
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