Progress on Internet-based educational material development for electronic products and systems cost analysis

The objective of this project is to build Internet-based educational materials that address the economic impact of electronic packaging technology, specifically the process of predicting the manufacturing and life cycle cost of electronic systems during their design and development process. This paper reports progress on: (1) the development and dissemination of Web-based instructional materials for use in cost analysis courses and as supplemental materials for a broad cross-section of other courses in the electronics and electronic packaging areas; and (2) the expansion of the elements within the course that address life cycle costs, particularly the concepts of life cycle assessment and design for environment. Six Internet-based modules are being developed. The modules developed include a mixture of lecture materials (in textual and video format), case studies, on-line computational tools, bibliographies, links, and discussion/homework problems. The modules are Internet-based and could be hosted by a central organization such as the IEEE.