What Every Engineer Should Know About Excel

Blake Holman is Chief Information Officer at St. David’s Foundation in Austin, TX. Blake joined the Foundation in 2015 and is responsible for strategic and operational Information Technology (IT) activities, enhancing the Foundation’s ability to be efficient and effective in fulfilling its mission. Prior to St. David’s Foundation, Blake spent 10 years as the Chief Information Officer of Ryan, LLC, the largest independent Tax Consulting Firm in the world. Blake has over 25 years of experience leading Information Technology Strategy, Development and Operations for several public and private companies in the Consulting, Telecommunications and Financial Services industries. Blake holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, and a Strategic IT Management Certificate from the Scandinavian International Management Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. Blake is currently working on a Master of Science degree in Information Security and Assurance at Western Governor’s University.In 2011 and 2012, under Blake's leadership, Ryan, LLC was ranked in the InformationWeek 500 listing of the most innovative business technology companies in the United States. In 2011, Ryan was ranked 130th, and in 2012, Ryan's ranking rose to 98th. In both cases, Ryan was the highest ranked corporate tax services firm on the list. In December 2012, Blake was named by Computerworld magazine as one of its 2013 "Premier 100 IT Leaders." The Computerworld Premier 100 IT recognition is an international lifetime award that shines a spotlight on technology.

"What Every Engineer Should Know About Excel is a valuable reference material that can be readily utilized by Engineers, Financial Comptrollers, Investors and Technology professionals in all industries. This second edition to Dr. Holman’s original collection of materials allows today’s Excel users to sharpen their current Excel skills, and take them to the next level, even integrating with cloud resources."—David A. Schmidt, SCHMIDT & STACY® Consulting Engineers, Inc., Dallas, Texas, USA"This book unleashes the incredible power Excel offers for engineers and scientists. Reviewing the book, I found myself simply browsing the many features of Excel that I had previously not explored. Every engineer and scientist will benefit from this book at some level and I only regret that I didn’t have access to a guide such as this earlier in my career. This book is extraordinarily well-organized. Any topic of interest can be quickly and easily accessed simply by referring to the Table of Contents. Once located, the topic is clearly and concisely presented with helpful illustrations and examples."—Stephen M. Collard, St. David's Foundation, Austin, Texas, USA"What Every Engineer Should Know About Excel is a timely, practical, thorough, and well-written book. It provides clear step-by-step directions on how to utilize Excel to solve simple and complex engineering-related tasks. The book displays excellent insight into the ‘guts’ of Excel’s presuppositions (i.e., how Excel defines terms and formulas) and its powerful built-in functions. It demonstrates concepts in such a manner that a reader is enticed to explore Excel’s virtues. The book serves the needs of both the novice and the expert. It can be used as either a university textbook or as a practical reference guide."—Mark A. Stone, Business Associate, Bryan, Texas, USA"What Every Engineer Should Know About Excel is a book that every engineer will find valuable for his or her work. The book begins with an overview of commonly used spreadsheet functions in Excel, including writing and copying formulas, built-in functions, and creating visually appealing charts, graphs, and drawings. Advanced calculation methods are clearly described, with explanations of how to solve nonlinear problems, iterative solution methods, matrix methods, and optimization problems. Practicing engineers will also find the overview of financial functions valuable for engineering financial analysis. The second edition includes new chapters on data management and integrating Excel with the Cloud. The book presents material in a practical step-by-step approach using examples from engineering practice."—David A. Willis, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA

• Introduction. Miscellaneous Operations in Excel and Word. Charts and Graphs. Line Drawings, Embedded Objects, Equations and Symbols in Excel. Solution of Equations. Other Operations. Financial Functions and Calculations. Optimization Problems. Pivot Tables. Data Management Resources in Excel. Office 365 and Integration with Cloud Resources. References. Index