foundations of engineering design I

Class 14– Oct 9

Excel as a Modeling Tool + Professional Email

today’s plan

•email•math modeling with Excel (PA 14)•creating graphs in Excel•assignments & announcements

email:

love it? hate it?let’s talk about it.

course competency“utilize effective and professional email communication in the course of a project”

you will submit an upcoming competency assignment as an email attachment

let’s characterize attributes of professional email

professional email • proper salutation • closing (who is it from?)• appropriate/useful subject line• proper grammar/spelling (not

texting grammar)• professional tone

more email etiquette • avoid using all caps• consider your signature• cc when necessary (not more)• find other ways to send large

files

modeling with Excel

get out your laptops and open up Excel

“All models are wrong. Some are useful”

- George Box

remember your own dental hygiene process? we now want to build a math model to estimate the annual cost to implement it.

take a few minutes to write out (by hand) the variables and/or equations you will need for this model. work in teams of 2 or 3.

reporting out • what were your variables?• what was your final equation?• what assumptions did your

model make?

one possible model

Ci = cost of tool i ($)Li = longevity of tool i (in days)x = total number of tools

annual cost =

longevity

ui = single usage amount of tool i si = purchase size of tool ini = # of times/day tool i is usedx = total number of tools

Li =

finally

annual cost ($) =

where Li =

Ci=purchase price; ui=single usage amount; ni = number of uses per day, si = purchase size

let’s model it in Excel

individually, you will build the model to predict the annual cost of your dental hygiene process using Excel

some style tips • store values separately from

equation• name cells that store key

equation variables• use colors to identify model

inputs/fixed values

figures – must haves • title• legend (when necessary)• caption (when included in

communication)

ok, here we go…

using the guidelines on the provided handout, build, execute, and then plot results of your team’s models. I’ll be around to help where you need me.

assignmentsUpcoming Practice AssignmentsPA 14: big mac modeling (10/18)PA 15: hydration assignment (10/11)PA 16: learn a new excel function (10/11)posted on blackboard under assignments practice assignments

Competency Assignmentsposted on blackboard under assignments competency assignments

reminder: no class on Tuesday, 10/16! enjoy fall break!