François Chung, Ph.D.

Tag: analytical criteria

Accounting and finance for IT professionals

Accounting and finance for IT professionals

Coursera training, MOOC (2017). Given online by the Indian School of Business (IN), this training presents the basics of financial accounting and finance. The first part focuses on the most important financial statements, financial health and performance of the company. The second part focuses on the basics of finance. The training also introduces the real options and their impact on decision making.

Week 1: Basics of financial statements

Main topics:

  • Balance sheet;
  • Assets and liabilities;
  • Shareholders' equity;
  • Income statement and expenses;
  • Statement of cash flows.

Week 2: Financial statement analysis

Main topics:

  • Profitability ratios;
  • Activity ratios;
  • Solvency and liquidity ratios;
  • DuPont identity;
  • Limitations of ratio analysis.

Week 3: Time value of money

Main topics:

  • Ordinary annuities;
  • Effective annual rate (EAR);
  • Annuity due and perpetuities;
  • Discount rate;
  • Diversification.

Week 4: Capital budgeting

Main topics:

  • Net present value (NPV);
  • Internal rate of return (IRR);
  • Free cash flows;
  • Sensitivity analysis;
  • Uncertainties in projects.

Reference

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Sustainability in practice

Sustainability in practice

Coursera training, MOOC (2015). Given online by The School of Design (PennDesign) of the University of Pennsylvania (US), this training provides an introduction to the ideas and practices that people are using to understand and change connections, including connections across time, that create systems that are greater than the simple sums of their parts, with consequences that are often unexpected. The objective is to pursue more sustainable processes and communities.

Week 1: Connections

Main topics:

  • Climate change;
  • Brundtland Report;
  • Systems thinking;
  • Design thinking;
  • Sketching.

Week 2: Allocation

Main topics:

  • Efficiency;
  • Natural capital;
  • Externality;
  • Lifecycle accounting.

Week 3: Resilience

Main topics:

  • Climate change;
  • Adaptability, transformability and diversity;
  • Collaboration.

Week 4: Emergence

Main topics:

  • Complex systems;
  • Informal settlements;
  • Computational models;
  • Innovation.

Week 5: Jurisdiction

Main topics:

  • Carbon Tracker;
  • Confirmation bias;
  • Product-service system.

Week 6: Performance

Main topics:

  • Benchmarking;
  • Energy efficiency;
  • Awareness raising;
  • Big data.

Week 7: Disruption

Main topics:

  • Disruptive innovation;
  • Integrated design;
  • Triple bottom line.

Reference

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UREBA Exceptionnel

UREBA Exceptionnel

E²=MC project @Jambes, Belgium (2013). The UREBA Exceptionnel subsidies are subsidies granted by the Walloon Region (BE) for the execution of works, such as the purchase and installation of materials or equipment, aiming to improve the energy efficiency and the rational use of energy in buildings. These subsidies are intended for persons of public law and non-commercial organisations, such as municipalities, schools, hospitals, swimming pools and community services.

The main works taken into account by these subsidies include:

  • the thermal insulation of building walls;
  • the replacement or upgrading of the heating system;
  • the improvement of the lighting system;
  • the implementation of a district heating.

The analytical criteria used to assess both the relevance and effectiveness of the proposed works are:

  • technical characteristics;
  • working hypotheses;
  • sizing of the works;
  • energy saving;
  • reduction of polluting emissions (e.g. CO2 and SO2);
  • economic assessment (e.g. costs and return on investment);
  • relevance of chosen techniques;
  • standards and codes of good behaviour.

As a Consultant in Energy Efficiency, my work consists in analysing these technical, energetic and economic criteria so as to determine the eligibility of the proposed works according to their relevance, and then to rank them according to their energy efficiency.

References