a-look-at-the-programs-in-multidisciplinary-engineering-areas-for-which-asee-is-now-the-lead-society-for-abet-accreditation-review

2006-403: A LOOK AT THE PROGRAMS IN MULTIDISCIPLINARYENGINEERING AREAS FOR WHICH ASEE IS NOW THE LEAD SOCIETY FOR ABET ACCREDITATION REVIEW James Farison, Baylor University Dr.. A Look a

2006-403: A LOOK AT THE PROGRAMS IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY

ENGINEERING AREAS FOR WHICH ASEE IS NOW THE LEAD SOCIETY FOR

ABET ACCREDITATION REVIEW

James Farison, Baylor University

Dr Jim Farison is currently professor and chair of the ECE Department at Baylor University, and

is also administratively responsible for Baylor's B.S in Engineering program He currently serves

as chair of ASEE's Multidisciplinary Engineering Division, and is a member of the ASEE

Accreditation Activities Committee He received his B.S.E.E from the University of Toledo and

his M.S and Ph.D from Stanford University, before returning to serve on the faculty at UT in the

EE and then the Bioengineering departments, and including 10 years as dean of engineering in

between, before moving to Baylor in 1998 He is a senior member of IEEE and holds PE

registration in Ohio and Texas

Carmen Li Shen, Baylor University

Ms Carmen C Li Shen is currently a senior engineering student in the Department of Electrical

and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, Waco, TX She is a member of the Eta Kappa

Nu Electrical and Computer Engineering national honor society and of Golden Key honor

society, and serves as the SWE chapter webmaster and the IEEE Student Branch historian at

Baylor Carmen was born in Ecuador and came to the United States in 2002 She is planning on

graduate school after her May 2006 graduation

© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006

A Look at the Programs in Multidisciplinary Engineering Areas for which ASEE Is Now the

Lead Society for ABET Accreditation Review

Abstract

As the result of ABET Board action in spring 2005, ASEE is now the lead society for the

accreditation of multidisciplinary engineering programs for accreditation visits beginning in the

fall of 2006 In this context, the terminology “multidisciplinary engineering programs” is

defined as the set of engineering programs with one of the following program titles (with a few

slight variations): Engineering, General Engineering, Engineering Physics, or Engineering

Science(s) ASEE also has lead society role for similarly selected engineering technology

programs but that set is not included here This paper presents information about 61 institutions

and their 63 programs of these types

Introduction

About six years ago, conversations among some engineering educators began an initiative that

has now resulted in two significant new activities in ASEE’s repertoire: a successful new ASEE

division and a prominent ASEE roll in accreditation

From a flurry of email communications early in 2001 by Dr Joan Gosink, Colorado School of

Mines, a “forum” was held at the 2001 ASEE Annual conference in Albuquerque With the

extensive promotion and leadership by Dr Gosink, the attendance at this initial meeting was very

good, with a recorded attendance of 31, representing nearly as many different institutions Dr

Gosink moderated the discussion and Dr Ed Jones, Iowa State University, served as secretary

pro tem At its initial leadership, the group selected a steering committee comprising Dr Gosink

(chair), Dr Dayne Aldridge, Mercer University, and Dr Harry Cook, University of Illinois,

Urbana-Champagne, with Dr Jones serving temporarily as secretary The discussion was lively,

with considerable debate over the appropriate thrust and the leadership of the group It was

decided to continue to meet, with the second meeting to be organized for the 2002 ASEE Annual

Conference in Montreal, QB

The second annual meeting was described in the early email announcements as the Department

Heads of Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs (DHMEP) meeting The first substantial

result of that initiative was the organization and recognition by ASEE of the group’s petition as

the Multidisciplinary Engineering Constituent Committee, with Dr Gosink as chair, Dr Jim

Farison, Baylor University, as vice chair and program chair, and Dr Phillip Young, University of

Wisconsin-Platteville, as secretary/treasurer The group continued to meet and develop its

structure and program at each succeeding ASEE Annual conference, and by the 2005 ASEE

Annual Conference in Portland, the group had been recognized by ASEE as the Multidisciplinary

Engineering Division

A more detailed record of the group, its history, program and leadership is provided in papers1,2

presented at the 2004 ASEE Gulf Southwest Section Conference in Lubbock, Texas, and at the

2005 ASEE Annual Conference in Portland As those papers document, a continuing focus of

the group has been the unique character and distinctions of the multidisciplinary engineering

programs One of the significant distinctions of this focus by the Multidisciplinary Engineering

Division, as a representative of its constituency from multidisciplinary engineering programs,

has been that those programs do not have the additional “program criteria” that the “traditional”

programs (such as civil engineering electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and most

others) do Indeed, the novelty, variety and interdisciplinary nature of these “multidisciplinary”

programs would not accommodate the type of additional program criteria that the traditional

programs have Information about some of the characteristics of this type of program is

available elsewhere.3,4,5

Related to this distinction, it was believed by many in multidisciplinary programs that the

selection, training and program review of accreditation evaluators through the traditional

disciplinary organizations (ASCE, IEEE, ASME, etc.) with program criteria could and

sometimes did lead to complications in the program evaluation This realization gradually but

naturally led to the proposal that ASEE, a broad-based interdisciplinary engineering

organization, become the lead society representing this specific set of multidisciplinary

engineering programs in the ABET accreditation process For engineering programs, that set

comprises those engineering programs with the names of Engineering (including General

Engineering), Engineering Physics or Engineering Science For engineering technology

programs, that set includes those programs called Engineering Technology (without further

delineation) That proposal was approved by the ASEE Board of Directors for forwarding to

ABET, and was approved by the ABET Board of Directors in June 2005

As a result of this new role,6,7,8 ASEE has adapted and strengthened its Accreditation Activities

Committee (AAC), solicited program evaluators with qualifications appropriate to that role, and

is preparing to train and send evaluators for programs within its purview for both EAC

(Engineering Accreditation Commission) and TAC (Technology accreditation Commission)

accreditation reviews ASEE-trained visitors will begin their visits to the respective programs

during fall 2006

Multidisciplinary Engineering Program Information

The ABET website9 currently lists accredited engineering programs under a set of drop-down

menu titles, two of which are: Engineering (including General Engineering) (with 35 programs

listed), and Engineering Physics/Engineering Science (with 30 programs listed)—a total of 65

Both sets include programs with variations on these specific titles Since these specific sets and

their entries (including the variations) were established before ASEE’s role was established, it is

likely that the current programs on these two ABET lists will not match exactly the set of

programs for which ASEE will have the accreditation role Accordingly, the authors have made

a good faith judgment between the two errors of including programs that will not be assigned to

ASEE and not including programs that will be assigned to ASEE, and hereby offer their sincere

apology to ABET for this step and to any program that is assigned differently With that

limitation acknowledged, one program from each of these two sets of general titles is not

Accordingly, in the remainder of this analysis, the following four groups of accredited programs

are identified Engineering (31) and Engineering (General) (1) are listed together as 32

Engineering programs Programs with the title General Engineering (2) are listed with that title

There are 17 institutions with programs in Engineering Physics (or Physics – Engineering

Physics option) There are 11 programs with the title Engineering Science or Engineering

Sciences, plus 1 with a program titled Engineering and Applied Science, for a total of 12 in this

group In summary, the subsequent information in this paper relates to the following programs:

Since two institutions have two different multidisciplinary engineering programs, there are 61

different institutions with these 63 accredited multidisciplinary engineering programs in this

study (and potentially under the purview of ASEE accreditation review responsibility) This

paper expands on the enumeration above, and reviews some of the characteristics of these

multidisciplinary engineering programs and the institutions that offer them Because of the

importance of the subject of this paper, the authors have taken special care to be both precise and

correct, hereby apologize in the event of any errors, and welcome the corrections of any

inaccurate or incomplete information The data for the following tables, which includes only

those institutions with one or more of the types of currently-accredited multidisciplinary

engineering programs listed here, is from the ABET website.9 The alphabetical ordering of

institutions used here is the same as that used by ABET The official assignment of program

accreditation roles is the responsibility of ABET, and may differ from the information presented

here

Table 1 displays the year of first accreditation for the 63 currently accredited multidisciplinary

engineering programs That history began with the four multidisciplinary engineering programs

that were first accredited in 1936, the first year that national professional accreditation was

offered At that time, accreditation was under the Engineers Council for Professional

Development (ECPD), the forerunner to the current ABET The next two newly accredited

multidisciplinary engineering programs were recognized in 1949 There were 3 new accredited

programs in the decade of the 1950’s, 9 in the 1960’s, 9 in the 1970’s, 10 in the 1980’s, 18 in the

1990’s, and so far 8 in the 2000’s These and following statistics include only those institutions

and programs that have continued their program accreditation to the present time

Table 2 provides, alphabetically by the institution name, a list of the accredited multidisciplinary

engineering programs offered, showing the names of the institutions, the accredited

multidisciplinary engineering programs offered, the years of their first accreditation, the numbers

of other accredited engineering programs offered, and the years of next accreditation review

(called next general review) In 26 of these 61 institutions, the multidisciplinary engineering

programs are the only accredited programs offered, while seven of these institutions offer 10 or

more additional accredited engineering programs This same information is shown in other

listing orders in multiple tables in the Appendix Table A1 shows the same information as Table Page 11.62.4

2, but groups the institutions by name of multidisciplinary engineering program offered Table

A2 lists the institutions by the year of the first multidisciplinary engineering program

accreditation Table A3 repeats the information again, in the order of the year of the institutions’

(and the program’s) next general accreditation review

Table 3 lists the other accredited engineering programs at the institutions with multidisciplinary

engineering programs The full names for these abbreviations are given in Appendix Table A4

With ASEE’s new role in the accreditation of multidisciplinary engineering programs, the

schedule of the accreditation cycle for program review and its accompanying need for program

evaluators and related responsibilities are of considerable importance for the recruiting, training

and assigning of those evaluators Table 4 gives the number of institutions and the numbers of

multidisciplinary engineering program accreditation visits during 2005-06, which were

completed under the previous accreditation assignments, and the anticipated visits for ASEE

program evaluators over the next several years starting in 2006-07 for the list of institutions and

programs shown in Tables 2 and 3, based on ABET’s six-year general accreditation review cycle

and as shown at ABET’s web site.9

Table 5 gives the listing of the corresponding institutions for each of the years in the six-year

accreditation cycle Except for the addition of new programs seeking accreditation and any

currently accredited programs that no longer seek accreditation, this information translates

directly into the anticipated ASEE program evaluator workload for the next several years Each

visit requires the minimum of the team chair and an evaluator for each program being reviewed

but, in the case of a visit for an institution with a single program review, two evaluators are

required In this case, the two evaluators share the assignment responsibility and combine their

assessments into a single accreditation draft report

TABLE 1 Year of First Accreditation of Multidisciplinary Engineering Programs

Year of

Accreditation Engineering

General Engineering

Engineering Science

Engineering Physics

TABLE 2 Multidisciplinary and Other Engineering Programs

Colorado School of Mines √ √ 1983 | 1977 6 2006-07

Colorado State University √ 1969 6 2007-08

George Fox University √ 2005 0 2010-11

Grand Valley State University √ 1990 3 2010-11

Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) √ 1962 0 2009-10

Harvey Mudd College √ 1962 0 2009-10

Hofstra University √ 1971 2 2005-06

Idaho State University √ 1985 3 2005-06

University of Illinois at U-C √ 1936 11 2007-08

John Brown University √ 1997 0 2008-09

The University of Kansas √ 1949 8 2006-07

LeTourneau University √ 1988 0 2008-09

Loyola College in Maryland √ 1991 1 2005-06

University of Maine √ 1949 7 2006-07

University of Maryland College Park √ 1976 10** 2005-06

McNeese State University √ 1981-1988; 1989 0 2009-10

Mercer University √ 1990 0 2007-08

Michigan Technological University √ 1975 11 2010-11

** Considered as one program even if offered at two different campuses

TABLE 2 (Continued) Multidisciplinary and Other Engineering Programs

Engineering Areas Multidisciplinary

Murray State University √ 1998 0 2009-10

College of New Jersey √ 1995 3 2006-07

State University of New York at

City University of New York,

College of Staten Island √ 1985 0 2008-09

The University of Oklahoma √ √ 1960 | 1953 9 2005-06

Olivet Nazarene University √ 2000 0 2005-06

Oral Roberts University √ 1994 0 2005-06

University of the Pacific √ 1986 5 2006-07

Pennsylvania State University

(University Park, PA) √ 1959 17 2008-09

University of Pittsburgh √ 1994 9 2005-06

Princeton University √ 1972 5 2007-08

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute √ 1993 12 2007-08

Robert Morris University √ 2004 1 2009-10

Roger Williams University √ 2000 1 2005-06

Southeast Missouri State University √ 2001 0 2006-07

Stevens Institute of Technology √ 1936 7 2009-10

Swarthmore College √ 1936 0 2010-11

University of Tennessee at

University of Tennessee at Knoxville √ 1976 11 2005-06

University of Tennessee at Martin √ 1999 0 2010-11

Texas Christian University √ 1997 0 2008-09

Texas Tech University √ 1965 8 2005-06

Trinity University √ 1969 0 2005-06

The University of Tulsa √ 1971 4 2006-07

Walla Walla College √ 1971 0 2007-08

University of Wisconsin-Platteville √ 2001 5 2006-07

Wright State University √ 1998 7 2005-06

TABLE 3 Other Accredited Engineering Programs at Institution College / University Other Engineering Programs

Arkansas State University − none −

Baylor University ELECT & COMP ENGR., MECH ENGR

California Institute of

Technology CHE ENGR., ELECT ENGR., MECH ENGR

Calvin College − none −

Colorado School of Mines CHE ENGR., GEOL ENGR., GEOP., ENGR., METLG & MATR ENGR., MIN ENGR., PET ENGR

Colorado State University BIOR & AG ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., ELECT

ENGR., ENV ENGR., MECH ENGR

Cornell University BIOL ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., ELECT & COMP ENGR., MATR SC & ENGR, MECH ENGR., OR & ENGR

Dartmouth College − none −

University of Denver COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., MECH ENGR

Dordt College − none −

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical

University - Daytona Beach AEROS ENGR., CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., SW ENGR

University of Florida

AEROS ENGR., AG & BIOL ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV

ENGR., COS & OCEAN ENGR., COMP ENGR.*, ELECT

ENGR.* ENV ENGR., IND & SYS ENGR., MATR SC &

ENGR., MECH ENGR., NUC ENGR

Fort Lewis College − none −

Geneva College − none −

George Fox University − none −

Grand Valley State

University ENGR (ELECT emphs.), ENGR (MANF emphs.), ENGR (MECH emphs.)

Harvard University

(Cambridge, MA) − none −

Harvey Mudd College − none −

Hofstra University ELECT ENGR., MECH ENGR

Hope College − none −

Idaho State University ENGR (CIV.), ENGR (ELECT.), ENGR (MECH.)

University of Illinois at U-C

AEROS ENGR., AG ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., ENGR MECHS., IND ENGR., MATR SC & ENGR., MECH ENGR., NUC ENGR

John Brown University

The University of Kansas AEROS ENGR., ARCH ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR.,

COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., MECH ENGR., PET ENGR

LeTourneau University − none −

Loyola College in Maryland ELECT ENGR

University of Maine BIOL ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., MECH ENGR., SPAT INFO SC & ENGR

* Available at University of Florida and at University of West Florida Page 11.62.9

TABLE 3 (Continued) Other Accredited Engineering Programs at Institution

College / University Other Engineering Programs

University of Maryland

College Park

AEROS ENGR., BIOL RES ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV

ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR.*, FIRE PRT ENGR., MATR ENGR., MECH ENGR.*, NUC ENGR

McNeese State University − none −

Mercer University − none −

Messiah College − none −

Michigan Technological

University

BIOM ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., ENV ENGR., GEOL ENGR., MATR SC &

ENGR., MECH ENGR., MINR PRO ENGR (opt METLG

ENGR & MATR ENGR), MIN ENGR

Montana Tech of the

University of Montana

ENV ENGR., GEOL ENGR., GEOP ENGR., METLG &

MATR ENGR., MIN ENGR., PET ENGR

Murray State University − none −

College of New Jersey COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., MECH ENGR

State University of New

York at Stony Brook COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., MECH ENGR

City University of New York,

College of Staten Island − none −

The University of Oklahoma

AEROS ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., ENV ENGR., IND ENGR., MECH ENGR., PET ENGR

Olivet Nazarene University − none −

Oral Roberts University − none −

University of the Pacific CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., ENGR MANG., MECH ENGR

Pennsylvania State

University (University Park,

PA)

AEROS ENGR., AG & BIOL ENGR., ARCH ENGR., CHE

ENGR., CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT ENGR., ENV

SYS ENGR., IND ENGR., MATR SC & ENGR (CER SC &

ENGR opt.), MATR SC & ENGR (ELECTR & PHO MATR

opt.), MATR SC & ENGR (METAL SC & ENGR opt.), MATR SC & ENGR (POLYM SC & ENGR opt.), MECH

ENGR., MIN ENGR., NUC ENGR., PET & NG ENGR

University of Pittsburgh

BIOE., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., COMP ENGR., ELECT

ENGR., IND ENGR., MATR SC & ENGR., MECH ENGR., METLG ENGR

Princeton University AEROS ENGR., CHE ENGR., CIV ENGR., ELECT ENGR.,

ENGR., NUC ENGR

Robert Morris University MANF ENGR

* Available at University of Maryland College Park and at Frostburg State University