Engineering Accreditation and Assessment

ABET, the US accrediting body for engineering, computing, and applied sciences adopted a revised standard for accreditation, Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000) in the late 1990s. Under EC2000, each program works with its various constituencies to develop program educational objectives, or the life and career accomplishments that the program is preparing graduates to achieve. To prepare students to attain the program educational objectives, the program must have a list of student outcomes or skills and knowledge that students obtain through courses, labs, and other educational activities while in the program. The author, Karl Warnick, Birmingham Young University, have coordinated the accreditation efforts of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. First of all, he worked with his External Advisory Board to develop true program educational objectives. To assess the program outcomes, he implemented a system of evaluating specific skills or knowledge, referred to as competencies, within each Electrical or Computer Engineering course offered by the department.