Current & Past Issues > Volume 2, Issue 2, January 2002

YASAI: Yet Another Add-in for Teaching Elementary Monte Carlo Simulation in Excel

Jonathan Eckstein - jeckstei@rutcor.rutgers.edu
MSIS Department, Business School, and RUTCOR, Rutgers
University, 640 Bartholomew Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854

Steven T. Riedmueller - stever321@yahoo.com
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1 Wiley Drive, Somerset, New Jersey
08875

 
Abstract
This report describes YASAI (Yet Another Simulation Add-In), a tool for performing Monte Carlo simulations via Excel spreadsheet models. Although similar tools do already exist, we needed one that was simple to use for beginning students, and could be used and installed easily without system administrator privileges. We describe the design philosophy of YASAI and its features for generating random variables, identifying simulation outputs, and
specifying scenarios. The output specification mechanism is novel,
and the scenario generation mechanism has some novel features. An example illustrates most of YASAI's features.

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