<p>I was wondering if anyone here was something along the lines of an economist engineer.
I was hoping you could give me advice on what undergrad degree to pursue.
I would appreciate any information at all, even if you are taking a wild guess!
Thank you</p>
<p>Industrial engineering perhaps?</p>
<p>I was looking for something that was perhaps 50/50 on engineering and economics.
Is there such a job or degree?</p>
<p>I was wondering what you meant by that job, it is invented by you then you might have to start your own business?</p>
<p>So engineers are trained to design and build things and are good at math and certain kinds of problem solving.</p>
<p>People who study economics at the undergrad level are not trained for any particular job, (People can go to graduate school then they are trained to be an economist doing research on inflation or interest rates or more) but they often take analyst or other business jobs. They are good at critical analysis and writing.</p>
<p>So you could work analyzing stocks of industrial and tech companies. You could be a business unit manager at an engineering firm. I know one engineering student who did a finance minor, maybe interned as an engineer but took a management track job at a semiconductor firm and runs a business unit. Probably you are not going to be designing and building robots and then analyzing the effect on the economy and labor pool of that.</p>
<p>Industrial Engineering would be the closes match. Larger ISE programs will sometimes offer the Financial Engineering “area of focus”. </p>
<p>Financial Engineering focuses on risk management issues and would include:</p>
<p>Analysis of risk measures such as Value-at-Risk and Conditional Value-at-Risk
Credit risk
Insurance pricing and resource allocation
Hedging using optimization approaches
Portfolio optimization
Pricing of derivative instruments
Trading algorithms.</p>
<p>Financial engineering has nothing to do with engineering.</p>
<p>I have a master’s degree in industrial engineering. I had two courses in engineering economy. These courses were some of my favorites. Most of the problems involved evaluating options for a company’s investment. For example, a manufacturer could purchase a piece of very expensive equipment that could produce a gazillion gadgets, or three lesser expensive pieces of equipment which would produce fewer gadgets. Which is best? Much of the analysis involves the time value of money. Google this and you will get a better explanation. </p>
<p>As far as what degree to pursue, to my knowledge an industrial engineering degree would be excellent. </p>
<p>Hmmmm
Then could I ask what undergraduate degree I might pursue if I were to be in the area of industrial engineering?
Would electrical engineering be decent? Or some other undergrad degrees?</p>
<p>There is actually a major called “industrial engineering” that may be of interest to you.</p>
<p>You can look up schools with that major at <a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx</a> .</p>
<p>Would you only suggest the industrial engineering major?
Or might you consider other engineering for undergrad?
Because I noticed that the major universities in Australia don’t offer “industrial engineering” so I was just wondering if it was different</p>
<p>Industrial (with a focus on financial engineering) is the closes match to “economist engineer”. All of the engineering fields are valid. What’s your goal? What do you want to do? </p>
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<p>Using high level math and algorithms to solve problems sounds like engineering to me :)</p>
<p>Get an engineering degree and then an MBA.</p>
<p>Would perhaps Engineering/Project Management be very similar to it?</p>
<p>As I am inclined to say the project management degree might be helpful in such a career.
Any thoughts?</p>
<p>My goal is really to be an Industrial Engineer for a company. It is rather straightforward really, but I am just having some issues with deciding how to achieve that goal starting with an undergrad degree</p>
<p>Well, if IE isn’t offered in Australia, I’m sure you can find similar programs. For example the University of Sydney offers a combine Engineering and commerce degree:</p>
<p><a href=“http://sydney.edu.au/courses/bachelor-of-engineering-honours-and-bachelor-of-commerce”>http://sydney.edu.au/courses/bachelor-of-engineering-honours-and-bachelor-of-commerce</a></p>
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<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>I think of Professor Jonathan Gruber of MIT as an “Economist Engineer”. Now, there is an engineer who designed and constructed something using principles derived from the study of Economics. A roommate once had to correct my mistaken perception (formed after taking MacroEcon) that economics was all about money. It was, he explained, just a study of what people actually do.</p>
<p>“Because I noticed that the major universities in Australia don’t offer “industrial engineering” so I was just wondering if it was different.”</p>
<p>It might be. I have seen three different names for the similar things–systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, and operations research. You want to look for curriculum with phrases like “stochastic processes,” “simplex method,” “dynamic programming,” and “control systems.” Beyond the requisite mechanics/electromagnetism and calculus through differential equations, you should also expect to take various economics courses an as well as the probability/statistics combination.</p>
<p>As an aside, it can also include a project management component. Looking back, while planning a construction project with associated Gantt charts was interesting, it felt more like job training than the other classes (e.g. optimization) did as it didn’t really teach anything broadly theoretical.</p>
<p>Yes, Google Systems Engineering Society of Australia. Lots of good info there. </p>
<p>Several Canadian universities, including Waterloo, have Management Engineering as a type of engineering major. That may be close to what you’re looking for. </p>
<p>Stanford used to have a department called Engineering Economic Systems and Operations Research. In 1999, Stanford University authorized the creation of the Department of Management Science and Engineering from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management and the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research. The objective of the newly formed department was to become the leader among academic departments, at the interface of engineering, business, and public policy.</p>