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Course Outline
Session 1: Interpreting common financial statements
2 hours, live Zoom session
- Income statement
- Balance sheet
- Key financial ratios
Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to calculate key financial ratios and interpret common financial statements.
Significance: Knowledge of these foundational concepts is key to performing due diligence in, for example, selection of suppliers, contractors and business partners.
Session 2: Analyzing capital investment opportunities
2 hours, live Zoom session
- Time value of money / Discounted cash flow
- Discount Rate / Hurdle Rate / Minimum acceptable rate of return (MARR)
- Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)
- Capital expenditures (CapEx)
- Payback
- Net present value (NPV) and Internal rate of return (IRR)
- Depreciation considerations
- Other non-financial considerations
Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to use commonly used methods for analyzing / making capital expenditure decisions.
Significance: This analysis is a key input for evaluating and approving capital projects.
Session 3: Case study
1 hour advance reading / preparation of case study before the live Zoom session
2 hours, live Zoom session
Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to evaluate capital expenditure opportunities.
Significance: Working through a case study is a proven method to build and reinforce practical skills.
Sessions 4 and 5: Estimating costs
2 hours each, live Zoom session
- Fixed, Variable and Absorption cost
- Prime cost, Standard cost, Activity-based cost
- Cost-plus pricing
- Contribution margins
- Sensitivity analysis
Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to estimate different types of costs relevant in a technical context.
Significance: This is critical input for planning and budgeting for projects, products and services.
Session 6: Life cycle costing
2 hours, live Zoom session
- Life cycle costing
- LCCA – Life Cycle Cost Analysis
- Federal project requirements
Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to estimate life cycle cost of a project.
Significance: LCCA provides a full cost view of projects. It is required for many types of federal projects.
Session 7: Case study
1 hour advance reading / preparation of case study before the live Zoom session
2 hours, live Zoom session
Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to analyze life cycle costs.
Significance: Working through a case study is a proven method to build and reinforce practical skills.
Course Schedule
Event Dates/Times:
- 7/11/2025 10:00am - 12:00pm Central Time
- 7/18/2025 10:00am - 12:00pm Central Time
- 7/25/2025 10:00am - 12:00pm Central Time
- 8/1/2025 10:00am - 12:00pm Central Time
- 8/8/2025 10:00am - 12:00pm Central Time
- 8/15/2025 10:00am - 12:00pm Central Time
- 8/22/2025 10:00am - 12:00pm Central Time
Additional Information
The course will be offered as a live online course, with recordings made of each session so that participants can watch them at other times if they are not available at the meeting time. Therefore, this course can be flexible and accommodate a variety of schedules. The course meetings will take once a week (Fridays 10 am-Noon Central Time) over a 7-week period.
Please watch the email address you provided during registration for instructional material release dates and pre-course information. Check your spam folder if you do not see your confirmation or UW (@wisc.edu) communication emails.
Program Director & Instructors
Program Director
Adib Amini
Raj Kamal
Lecturer
Raj Kamal is a lecturer in the College of Engineering at UW-Madison, and the owner of Credens LLC, a management consulting firm based in the Madison, Wisconsin area.
He has 25+ years of industry and blue-chip consulting experience with both Fortune 500 and smaller organizations in manufacturing and distribution; financial services and insurance; and government and higher education. Raj also brings extensive expertise in program management; quantitative modeling; and statistical analyses.
He holds a Master of Science in Management from Purdue University, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, India, and a BA (with honors) in Economics from Delhi University, India.
In the Master of Engineering MEM program, Raj teaches EPD 611 – Engineering Economics and Management. Outside EPD, he also teaches operations management, statistics, strategy, information technology, and quality in the MBA program at Edgewood College, and has previously taught at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Business.