Opening Keynote
The opening plenary of the 2023 ABET Symposium will set the stage for discussions around the theme of resilience and what it will take to overcome today’s great challenges. Following a review of ABET’s impact over the past year and our future goals delivered by ABET President Dr. S. K. Ramesh, ABET CEO Dr. Michael Milligan will establish why the right combination of resilience, technical knowhow and our innate human need to progress and solve problems are grounds for future optimism. Our 2023 invited keynote speaker, Dr. Jenna Carpenter, Founding Dean of the Campbell University School of Engineering, will then present her views on resilience and specifically why she believes diversity and equality, especially for girls and women around the world, are absolutely critical to any kind of sustainable success.
The opening plenary of the 2023 ABET Symposium will set the stage for discussions around the theme of resilience and what it will take to overcome today’s great challenges. Following a review of ABET’s impact over the past year and our future goals delivered by ABET President Dr....
Jenna Carpenter
Founding Dean and Professor, School of Engineering, Campbell UniversityDr. Jenna Carpenter is Founding Dean and Professor of Engineering at Campbell University and President of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). An expert on issues impacting success of women in STEM and innovative STEM curricula, she has held national leadership roles including ASEE Vice President, WEPAN (Women in Engineering ProActive Network) President and Mathematical Association of America First Vice-President. In addition, she chaired the National Academies Ad Hoc Committee on the Gulf Scholars Program. Carpenter is co-recipient of the 2022 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Techology Education from the National Academy of Engineering, recognizing her contributions as one of the pioneers of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program. Carpenter is an ABET Program Evaluator and on the Executive Committee of the Global Engineering Deans Council. In 2015, DreamBox Learning selected her as one of 10 Women in STEM Who Rock! for her advocacy and TEDx talk, “Engineering: Where are the Girls and Why aren’t They Here?”, the only academic on a list of CEOs, politicians, and actresses. She received the 2019 ASEE Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education, as well as the 2018 WEPAN Founder’s Award and 2013 WEPAN Distinguished Service Award.
S. K. Ramesh
2022-2023 President, ABETS. K. Ramesh, Ph.D., is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and the former director and lead principal investigator of the AIMS2 Program supported by a multi-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s HSI-STEM program. AIMS2 has received several national and international awards for improving student success with high impact practices including undergraduate research and peer mentoring. It was selected as the 2019 baccalaureate program of the year and named the 2019 Example of Excelencia by Excelencia in Education. Ramesh served as dean of California State University, Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science from 2006 to 2017, where he established several innovative programs focusing on renewable energy, assistive technology and advanced manufacturing. Prior to joining CSUN, he was professor of electrical and electronic engineering at California State University, Sacramento, where he served as the department chair from 1994 to 2006.
He served on the ABET Board of Directors as the Director of the Engineering Area Delegation and was a member of ABET’s Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Advisory Council. Additionally, Ramesh is an experienced Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Program Evaluator (PEV) and has performed several ABET accreditation visits in the U.S. and internationally. Ramesh has been an active IEEE volunteer for 38 years and served on several Boards, including the IEEE Board of Directors, IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB), the IEEE-HKN Board of Governors, IEEE Publications Services and Products Board (PSPB), IEEE Awards Board (AB) and the ABET Board of Delegates. Key leadership roles include his service as the 2016-2017 IEEE Vice President of Educational Activities and the 2016 IEEE-HKN President (Electrical Engineering Honor Society).
His many recognitions include the John Guarrera Engineering Educator of the Year, William Johnson International award for leadership and contributions to the profession and the IEEE Region 6 Community Service award. Ramesh’s professional interests are in fiber optic communications, and he received the BE (Honors) degree from Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli (REC, Trichy) and now NITT, in 1981, and the MSEE and Ph.D. degrees from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1983 and 1986, respectively. Ramesh was elevated to the grade of IEEE Fellow in 2015 “for contributions to entrepreneurship in engineering education.”
Michael Milligan
Chief Executive Officer, ABETMichael K. J. Milligan is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of ABET, the global accreditor of over 4,300 college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.
Prior to joining ABET in 2009, Milligan was a systems director at the Aerospace Corporation, leading a team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center developing the next generation environmental satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Milligan served over 24 years as a career U.S. Air Force officer working in operations, education, international research & development, and technology acquisition. During his USAF career, he served as an associate professor and deputy department head in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Milligan earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, his M.S.E. from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and his B.S. from Michigan State University — all in electrical engineering. He also earned an M.B.A. in Business Administration from Western New England College, is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Colorado and Maryland, and a Certified Association Executive (CAE).
Milligan is also a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, IEEE Eta Kappa Nu Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Jessica Silwick
CFO/COO, ABETJessica Silwick is both CFO and COO for ABET. As CFO, she is responsible for developing ABET’s financial management strategy, budget development, forecasting and the integrity of the financial information. Silwick is also responsible for monitoring investments of strategic reserves. As COO, Silwick oversees communications and marketing, professional assessment offerings, office operations, overall management of Human Resources and serves as Lead Internal Auditor for ABET’s Quality Management System to ensure continued ISO compliance and certification.
Prior to ABET, Silwick gained experience working for large organizations in the manufacturing, pharmaceutical and energy fields. Silwick earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame of Maryland and an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler School of Business. She is also an active Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and has earned professional certificates from Yale and Cornell Universities. In 2015, Silwick received the AICPA’s Women to Watch, Emerging Leader Award by the Greater Washington Society of CPAs. Outside her busy professional life, Silwick enjoys practicing yoga and hiking with her husband, two children and dogs.
Leveraging Best Assessment Practices for Accreditation Review
ABET criteria imply some manner of continuous activities in all the general criteria from students to institutional support. While some of these processes are institutionally and automatically continuous in any academic setting, demonstration of compliance around the Accreditation Policy and Procedure Manual, Criterion 2 (Program Educational Objectives), Criterion 4 (Continuous Improvement), and, by association, Criterion 3 (Student Outcomes) usually ramps up in preparation for an accreditation visit. While accreditation reviews occur periodically, assessment processes conducted continuously and resourcefully can make accreditation preparation easier. This session will offer a perspective on how to leverage assessment practices to efficiently provide the various evidences required in accreditation reviews for each of the four ABET commissions. Included in the presentation will be a discussion of “do this, not that” from the perspective of a program preparing for a review.
ABET criteria imply some manner of continuous activities in all the general criteria from students to institutional support. While some of these processes are institutionally and automatically continuous in any academic setting, demonstration of compliance around the Accreditation Policy and Procedure Manual, Criterion 2 (Program...
Daina Briedis
Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment, Michigan State UniversityDaina M. Briedis, Ph.D., is currently an Adjunct Director of Professional Offerings at ABET. She also serves as Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment in the College of Engineering at Michigan State University and is a faculty member and ABET Coordinator in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Over the past 32 years, Briedis has served ABET as a program evaluator for AIChE, a team chair and member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), the first chair of the EAC Training and Materials Development Committee and an Executive Committee member of the EAC. She was a program evaluator on one of the very first “EC2000” visits and subsequently chaired several new criteria visits. Briedis has been an AIChE Representative Director on the ABET Board of Directors and has been involved in the design teams for the new program evaluator and train-the-trainers training materials. She is a lead facilitator for the program evaluator training sessions. She also consults in the area of accreditation and assessment and evaluation and serves on the Board of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). She was elected a Fellow of ABET in 2007, a Fellow of the AIChE in 2011 and a Fellow of ASEE in 2015. She is an ABET Senior IDEAL Scholar.
Larraine Kapka
Professor Emeritus, Sinclair CollegeLarraine Kapka is a Professor Emeritus at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Missouri in Mechanical Engineering and has M.S. degrees from both the University of Central Missouri (Industrial Management) and the University of Dayton (Mechanical Engineering). She is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio, where her disciplinary specialty is Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning. Before working in academia full-time, Kapka served in the Air Force and spent 20 years working in industry as a Department of Energy contractor. She has significant experience preparing self-studies for ABET visits at her own institution as a faculty member, Department Chair and Assistant Dean. She has served as an ABET evaluator and team chair for several years. She is the current Engineering Technology Accreditation Director for ABET. Besides being an ABET Director and Evaluator, she has been the chair for the subcommittee designing training for new PEVs (PEVC training). She spends hours each year updating and teaching in this course. She is proud of two awards she earned while working in Industry: being named an “Energy Manager of the Year” by the Department of Energy, and receiving a national Federal Energy Efficiency award. As an academic, she received the Rousche Excellence in Teaching award from the League for Innovation. Besides her work in ABET, she remains active in both ASHRAE and ASME, serving on the ASME Committee for Engineering Technology Accreditation and as a national scholarship evaluator.
Torey Nalbone
Department Head for Civil & Environmental Engineering and Construction Management, University of Texas at TylerDr. J. Torey Nalbone serves as the Department Head for Civil & Environmental Engineering and Construction Management at the University of Texas at Tyler. In addition to his leadership role in the Department, he oversees these two programs in Houston, Texas at the Houston Engineering Center. Nalbone has also played additional roles in leadership at UT Tyler, twice as the as a Chair of the Academic Chairs Council and currently as Chair of the Graduate Council.
Nalbone is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) with over forty years of industrial hygiene and human health protection engineering experience. He is a Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). He has also served as Chair of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) and has received the ACGIH Meritorious Achievement award in 2017.
Nalbone has been involved with ABET for more than 25 years. He has served as the program evaluator for Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Health and Safety for Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission (ANSAC) of ABET. Nalbone is a commissioner for ANSAC of ABET and has served as a member of the Executive Committee and as Chair of the ANSAC Commission in 2018-19. Nalbone has served as a Visit Team Chair for both domestic and international visits serving on two of the largest visit teams in ABET operations.
At the University of Texas at Tyler, Nalbone was appointed Department Chair of Construction Management in 2010 and then also as Department Chair for Civil & Environmental Engineering in 2011. His career includes experience as environmental and industrial hygiene analyst at the Southwest Institute of Forensic Science (SWIFS) in Dallas, Texas and as a industrial Hygiene compliance manager with the Oregon State Plan OSHA (Or OSHA) and as a Deputy State Fire Marshal for Hazardous Materials. His academic career began as an instructor of Environmental Science and Industrial Hygiene at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville Texas and then as Assistant Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Texas Heath Center, Tyler. Nalbone was appointed Program Co-Director of the Graduate Program of Environmental Science and Deputy Director of the Southwest Agriculture Center (NIOSH Center) in 2001. He moved to the University of Texas at Tyler in 2006, as Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and assumed the Chair positions of the two departments after four years on faculty.
Nalbone earned his Ph.D. from the Texas A&M University.
A. Joseph Turner, Jr.
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Clemson UniversityDr. Joe Turner is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Clemson University, and former a faculty member and dean at Zayed University in Dubai/Abu Dhabi. Turner has been a Lead Facilitator for ABET program evaluator training for more than 10 years. His previous service includes Chair of the Seoul Accord, ABET CAC Executive Committee member, ABET Foundation Consultation Services Coordinator, ACM Vice-President, IFIP Vice-President, CSAB President and Chair of the ACM Education Board. He has served more than 70 times as a consultant or on evaluation teams for computing programs in 13 countries. His honors and awards include the ABET Grinter Award, ACM Outstanding Contribution Award and ACM SIGCSE Distinguished Service Award. Turner is a Fellow of ABET, ACM and CSAB.
We Are Interested in Seeking ABET Accreditation: Are We Ready?
Considering ABET accreditation for the first time? You can't miss this session! You will gain a firm understanding of the foundational processes and procedures of the ABET accreditation process, what is needed to prepare for the initial accreditation of a program and where to turn for additional information. We will go over the entire process of ABET accreditation — from how to apply, to the purpose of the Self-Study Report, to what to expect during the on-site visit. You will also understand what a due process response entails and when to expect the final decision.
Considering ABET accreditation for the first time? You can’t miss this session! You will gain a firm understanding of the foundational processes and procedures of the ABET accreditation process, what is needed to prepare for the initial accreditation of a program and where to turn...
Douglas Bowman
Adjunct Accreditation Director of Engineering, ABETDouglas Bowman, Ph.D., entered the engineering profession in 1978 after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy with a degree in general engineering. He attended Stanford University as a Hertz Fellow, receiving MSEE and Ph.D. degrees in 1983 and 1986, respectively. During a multifaceted career, he held a wide variety of engineering and leadership positions in the military, academia and the aerospace industry until retiring from Lockheed Martin.
A senior member of the IEEE and the AIAA, Bowman is also a registered professional engineer and an ABET Fellow. Included among his activities are stints on the NSPE Industry Advisory Group and the AIAA Systems Engineering Technical Committee. Other accomplishments include service on the Research Advisory Committee of the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland and the Board of Directors of the Microelectronics and Computer Technologies Corporation. He currently serves as an adjunct accreditation director for the EAC of ABET.
Winston Erevelles
Adjunct Accreditation Director of Engineering, ABETWinston F. Erevelles, Ph.D., F.ABET., is Dean Emeritus, Special Advisor to the President and Professor of Engineering at St. Mary’s University. During his 12 year tenure as Dean of the School of Science, Engineering and Technology, he led the development and enhancement of the school’s education and research capabilities, community and industrial outreach, and domestic and international partnerships, with over $45 million raised to support these initiatives. His current projects include a STEM Innovation Center that is currently under construction and a new Nursing program. Erevelles previously served in engineering, faculty and leadership roles at Robert Morris University, Kettering University and Mykron Engineers (India) over a 25-year period.
Erevelles earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Management (manufacturing engineering emphasis) from the University of Missouri-Rolla. His affiliation with ABET began in 1998 and includes service as a Program Evaluator, Team Chair and Chair of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC). He currently serves as an Adjunct Accreditation Director for the EAC of ABET.
ANSAC: Accreditation Program Under ANSAC General Criteria
Many programs under the applied sciences have ANSAC approved program criteria including but not limited to: Industrial Hygiene, Safety, Surveying, Facilities Management and Construction Management, while other programs under the natural sciences and mathematics do not have program criteria. An increasing number of these programs are being considered for accreditation by ANSAC. Learn about the protocols for determining appropriateness of your request and if ANSAC is right for you.
Many programs under the applied sciences have ANSAC approved program criteria including but not limited to: Industrial Hygiene, Safety, Surveying, Facilities Management and Construction Management, while other programs under the natural sciences and mathematics do not have program criteria. An increasing number of these programs...
Lisa Sachs
Managing Principal Emeritas, Cumming Construction ManagementFor over 25 years, Lisa Sachs was a key contributor to the success of two of the largest multi-billion dollar educational construction management bond programs in California, initially as a principal of her own firm and then as managing principal of Cumming, after merging firms. Recognized as an industry leader, she was inducted into the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) College of Fellows in 2012 and 2017. She is past president of the CMAA Southern California Chapter and Chapter Foundation, and in 2014 was appointed by CMAA as its first ABET commissioner representing construction management in the applied and natural sciences where she is currently serving on the Executive Committee. Sachs also serves on the CMAA National Foundation and Southern California Chapter Foundation Boards, the Cal State University of Northridge CM Industry Liaison Council, and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Architectural Program Advisory Council (her alma matter).
Rebecca Popeck
Survey Project Manager, SPACECO, Inc.Rebecca Popeck is a licensed Land Surveyor at Rosemont based SPACECO, Inc., a civil engineering, land surveying and consulting firm. Popeck studied Land Survey Engineering and Civil Engineering at Purdue University’s West Lafayette Campus earning bachelor’s degrees in both disciplines. She has been a licensed Illinois Land Surveyor since 2005. Popeck has spent almost 20 years performing surveys and providing surveying services in the greater Chicagoland area. Her specialties include development work in residential, commercial and industrial sectors with an increased focus on projects within the limits of the City of Chicago. She joined ABET in 2006 as a Program Evaluator supporting her member society of National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS). NSPS is a member of three accreditation commissions including ANSAC, EAC and ETAC. She has had the pleasure of serving as a PEV for both ETAC and ANSAC visits early in her ABET career. In 2014, Popeck became a commissioner/team chair for the Applied and Natural Science Commission. In 2017, she further progressed through the ranks to join ANSAC’s executive committee. During the 2019-2020 accreditation cycle, Popeck was a team chair for her first international visit to Krishnan Kovil, Tamil Nadu, India.
Ask Me Anything: Accreditation Discussion Den
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Accreditation Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all accreditation-related questions and our experts will answer them. ABET Chief Accreditation Officer Joe Sussman and Senior Director of Accreditation Operations Jane Emmet will lead the conversation.
Each Discussion Den brings ABET thought leaders together with Symposium attendees for an informal and enlightening discussion on a specific topic. These are organic conversations. There is no agenda or PowerPoint presentation. The audience’s questions and experiences build an inquisitive conversation that the group leaders guide with their insight and expertise.
Discussion Dens allow attendees to learn from the group leaders as well as from the questions and experiences of their peers.
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Accreditation Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all accreditation-related questions and our experts will answer them. ABET Chief Accreditation Officer Joe Sussman and Senior Director of Accreditation Operations Jane Emmet will lead the conversation. Each Discussion...
Joe Sussman
Chief Accreditation Officer and Chief Information Officer, ABETAs chief accreditation officer and chief information officer since 2011, Joe Sussman leads ABET’s global accreditation operations, collaborating with the organization’s volunteer leadership in both tactical execution and strategic development of ABET’s accreditation practice. Previously, he spent 26 years as an engineering leader and senior business executive at Bayer AG, leading many of the company’s quality, manufacturing, and IT efforts. After retiring from Bayer he became an industry specialist at Deloitte Consulting, where he worked with many global clients. Before joining the ABET staff, he served for 24 years in nearly every volunteer capacity, including as program evaluator for mechanical engineering programs, chair of the Engineering Accreditation Commission, representative director from ASME on the ABET Board of Directors, and president (2008–2009). He was inducted as an ABET fellow in 2002 after having played a pivotal role in implementing the ground-breaking Engineering Criteria 2000. In 2011 he was elected an ASME fellow for his contributions to quality in engineering education, and in 2015 he received the Linton E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the technical disciplines through his work in accreditation. He earned his baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
Jane Emmet
Senior Director, Accreditation Operations, ABETJane Emmet has been responsible for the management and administration of ABET’s accreditation policies and procedures and the overall operations of ABET’s accreditation processes since November, 2015. She joined ABET in January of 2014 as the Training Manager responsible for the training of the over 2,000 volunteer professionals who serve ABET. Her background, prior to joining ABET, includes directing and managing training and leadership development programs at professional service organizations, energy companies and developing education programs for history museums. Jane holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in History/Education and a master’s degree in Museum Education from The George Washington University. She also holds a Graduate Certificate from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in Instructional Systems Design.
Engineering for One Planet: Helping Engineering Educators Meet ABET Sustainability Criteria
Engineering for One Planet (EOP) is an initiative to transform engineering education to reflect the growing importance of sustainability in all engineering functions. Catalyzed by The Lemelson Foundation and VentureWell — in collaboration with hundreds of sustainability advocates across sectors, geographies, and lived experiences — EOP seeks to ensure all future engineers across all disciplines learn the fundamental skills and principles of social and environmental sustainability. The EOP Framework is a cornerstone of the EOP initiative, the first of its kind to guide coursework, teaching tools, and student experiences that define what it means to be an engineer who is equipped to protect and improve our planet and our lives. It provides faculty with a vetted menu of competencies aligned to ABET accreditation standards that every graduating engineer, regardless of subdiscipline, needs to acquire to design, code, build, and implement solutions that are socially and environmentally sustainable.
Engineering for One Planet (EOP) is an initiative to transform engineering education to reflect the growing importance of sustainability in all engineering functions. Catalyzed by The Lemelson Foundation and VentureWell — in collaboration with hundreds of sustainability advocates across sectors, geographies, and lived experiences —...
Cindy Anderson
Consultant, Founder & CEO, Alula Consulting; Consultant, Engineering for One Planet, The Lemelson FoundationCindy Anderson (she/her/hers) is the founder and CEO of Alula Consulting and Consultant, Engineering for One Planet, The Lemelson Foundation. Anderson specializes in innovative sustainability- and online-focused research and curriculum projects for academic institutions, non-profits, government, and corporations. She has taught thousands of people through courses and workshops, around the world and online, in the fields of biology, sustainability, and biomimicry. She is honored to be a collaborative partner on the Engineering for One Planet initiative since its inception, co-author of the EOP Framework and new framework integration guides, and active EOP Network Member.
Anderson holds a M.S. from Oregon State University, a MEd from Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), a BSc in biology from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) and a graduate certificate in public health from the University of Montana.
Cindy Cooper
Senior Program Officer, The Lemelson FoundationCindy Cooper leads The Lemelson Foundation’s Engineering for One Planet initiative, an effort to equip tomorrow’s engineers with the skills, knowledge and understanding to protect and improve our planet and our lives. For more than 20 years, Cooper has fostered social and environmental impact through innovation, working across academic, philanthropic, business and entrepreneurship fields. She co-founded and led award-winning organizations and programs in higher education and international development, including the world’s first website for fair trade Spanish lessons through videoconferencing. A Brazilian American, she holds a Global MBA with distinction from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Psychology/Spanish BA summa cum laude from Claremont McKenna College.
Michael Milligan
Chief Executive Officer, ABETMichael K. J. Milligan is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of ABET, the global accreditor of over 4,300 college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.
Prior to joining ABET in 2009, Milligan was a systems director at the Aerospace Corporation, leading a team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center developing the next generation environmental satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Milligan served over 24 years as a career U.S. Air Force officer working in operations, education, international research & development, and technology acquisition. During his USAF career, he served as an associate professor and deputy department head in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Milligan earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, his M.S.E. from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and his B.S. from Michigan State University — all in electrical engineering. He also earned an M.B.A. in Business Administration from Western New England College, is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Colorado and Maryland, and a Certified Association Executive (CAE).
Milligan is also a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, IEEE Eta Kappa Nu Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Creating Computing Assignments to Support Diverse Populations
Although computing curriculum contains primarily technical content, faculty can teach impressionable young minds to value diversity. It can be integrated into the curriculum by creating a diverse backdrop for programming problems and assignments. In 2010, five faculty members at Slippery Rock University (SRU) participated in a Frederick Douglas Collaborative Grant to create a sample set of assignments that supported diversity for 34 courses in the Computer Science, Information Systems and Information Technology programs. This session is based upon the prior work and will provide examples of creating new assignments and modify existing assignments to integrate diversity (gender, race, religion, culture, sexuality, and disabilities) into the classroom without modifying course content. The techniques of framing assignments and using interesting data sets can be incorporated in many different courses and assist programs with implementing the proposed ABET CAC 4th curriculum criterion.
Although computing curriculum contains primarily technical content, faculty can teach impressionable young minds to value diversity. It can be integrated into the curriculum by creating a diverse backdrop for programming problems and assignments. In 2010, five faculty members at Slippery Rock University (SRU) participated in...
Deborah Whitfield
Professor of Computer Science, Slippery Rock UniversityDr. Deborah Whitfield is a Computer Science professor at Slippery Rock University. She has been involved in the assessment since 1998 and ABET accreditation since 2001. Whitfield’s involvement in promoting diversity includes being a co-PI on a PDE Keystone/Frederick Douglas Collaborative Grant: “Creating an Environment Supportive of Diversity in Computing Courses,” a member of SRU’s Gender committee (formerly Women’s Studies Committee) and a member of NCWIT. In addition, she is advisor and founder of student organization “Women in Computing at the Rock” (WiCR) and is the advisor of the ASL (American Sign Language) Club. Whitfield is also developing an app for assisting the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing to communicate with each other.
Getting Started with Program Assessment
Are you new to program assessment? Have you volunteered or been assigned the task of leading your program assessment efforts and you need assistance on how to move forward? In this session, the speakers share experiences related to getting started and sustaining program assessment and program continuous improvement processes. The speakers will use a continuous improvement framework to share practical approaches and best practices for each step of the process. This session will provide relevant tips for individuals whose new programs are up for first-time accreditation and to those from established programs who are new to assessment or accreditation.
Are you new to program assessment? Have you volunteered or been assigned the task of leading your program assessment efforts and you need assistance on how to move forward? In this session, the speakers share experiences related to getting started and sustaining program assessment and...
Jenny Amos
Teaching Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignJennifer “Jenny” Amos, Ph.D., joined the Bioengineering Department at the University of Illinois in 2009 and is currently a Teaching Professor in Bioengineering with affiliations in Educational Psychology, Healthcare Systems Engineering and Medicine. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of South Carolina. She is an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Board of Director Member, two-time Fulbright Specialist in engineering education and has won multiple awards and recognitions for her teaching and scholarship of teaching. Outside of BMES, she has also worked to revolutionize the future of graduate medical education serving as a founding member of the new Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, a first-of-its-kind engineering-driven college of medicine. Amos is part of the Illinois NSF RED (Revolutionizing Engineering & Computer Science Departments) research team leading efforts to innovate assessment practices for engineering toward producing more holistic engineers. Amos has a decade’s worth of experience leading curriculum reform implementing robust assessment strategies at multiple institutions. Amos has served as an ABET PEV for BMES since 2012 and a commissioner for the Engineering Accreditation Commission at ABET from 2018 until 2021. She is 2011 IDEAL Scholar graduate and has been leading program assessment workshops since 2012.
Ben Juliano
Professor, Computer Science, California State University - ChicoBen Juliano is a Professor of Computer Science at California State University, Chico. He served as the campus interim chief institutional research officer and WASC accreditation liaison officer and has served the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Construction Management as Associate Dean in 2016, Interim Associate Dean in 2015-2016, Interim Dean in 2013-2015 and Associate Dean in 2010-2013. He also served as Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2011-2013. In 2007-2013, serving as the college’s assessment coordinator, he managed and facilitated all assessment, accreditation and academic program review efforts for all 11 undergraduate programs (nine accredited) and two graduate programs offered in his college.
Juliano was the Director of the Institute for Research in Intelligent Systems (IRIS) and Co-director of the Intelligent Systems Lab (ISL) in his college. His research interests are in data visualization and predictive analysis, intelligent systems, data mining and computational intelligence algorithms. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of the Philippines in Los Baños and his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science and a certificate in cognitive science from Florida State University. He is an ABET Senior IDEAL Scholar and a WASC Assessment Leadership Academy alumni.
ETAC: Common Challenges and Findings
This presentation is designed for representatives from ETAC accredited programs or those interested in seeking ETAC accreditation. In either case, the session will help programs proactively prepare for future accreditation reviews. Two senior members of the ETAC leadership group provide general information related to common challenges and the high frequency of findings. Examples of common findings are used to provide a context for discussion about how to safeguard against such findings being written for a program.
This presentation is designed for representatives from ETAC accredited programs or those interested in seeking ETAC accreditation. In either case, the session will help programs proactively prepare for future accreditation reviews. Two senior members of the ETAC leadership group provide general information related to common...
April Cheung
Assistant Professor of Practice, Electrical Engineering Technology, Purdue UniversityApril Cheung currently serves as the Chair-Elect of ETAC at ABET, previously chairing the ETAC Training Committee. Her experience in ABET also includes roles as: Program Evaluator, Team Chair and Editor. She served on the IEEE Committee on Engineering Technology Accreditation Activities (CETAA) from 2010-2012 and 2016-present, where she chairs the CETAA Communications Committee. Cheung was a research and development manager at BraunAbility, where she managed and developed new products and technologies for wheelchair accessible vehicles. She was also an Electronics Engineering Manager for IMMI, where she managed and developed electronic active and passive safety products used in class 8 trucks, fire trucks and ambulances. She is currently an assistant professor of practice at Purdue University Polytechnic Institute at West Lafayette, Indiana.
Raju Dandu
Professor/Director Bulk Solids Innovation Center, Kansas State University SalinaRaju Dandu is the Chair-Elect of Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) of ABET and served on ABET Governance as a member of board of delegates. Dandu is an experienced American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Engineering Technology Program Evaluator (PEV), ETAC Commissioner and has performed several ABET accreditation visits in the U.S. and internationally. Dandu served as a member of the ASME Committee on Engineering Education, Board of Directors of American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and Board of Directors of Salina Area United Way. Dandu provided consulting services in product design, manufacturing, industrial automation, patent filing, grant writing, startup business development, product CE certification, reliability centered maintenance and training industry workforce. Currently, he works with a team of industry experts at Bulk Solids Innovation Center (BSIC), the only university-centered facility and staff in North America dedicated to improving technology and knowledge of powder and bulk solids handling of various industries including: food, chemicals, minerals, pharmaceuticals and plastics. From research, education, training, access to technology and lab scale sample to full-scale testing of dry bulk solids, this unique Center identifies and solves real-world industrial problems.
Dandu is also a Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology and Director of Kansas State University BSIC. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, Diploma Engineer from Slovak Technical University, Czechoslovakia in Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering, and Diploma in Automobile Engineering from Andhra Polytechnic, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. He also served as graduate program director Kansas State University Salina campus. Dandu is fluent in spoken and written English, Slovak, Czech and Telug and can communicate in Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi.
ABET Recognition of Certificates – Piloting and Beyond
Changes in education are rapidly evolving to meet learner and employer needs. Combinations of traditional degrees, certificates, and other professional development credentials are being sought by today’s learners. Employers welcome this trend to maintain a workforce with up-to-date skills. However, employers are challenged to be confident about what learning outcomes have been achieved in the plethora of certificates offered. Thus, there is a need and opportunity for ABET to provide quality assurance and certificate recognition for learners, employers, educators, and society. To further ABET Strategic Goals, the Board of Directors recently approved proceeding with piloting ABET recognition of certificate programs. This session presents the work of the ad hoc committee that investigated piloting ABET’s entry into this space. We provide background and overview the committee’s results that includes draft criteria, policies and procedures, and self-study materials.
Changes in education are rapidly evolving to meet learner and employer needs. Combinations of traditional degrees, certificates, and other professional development credentials are being sought by today’s learners. Employers welcome this trend to maintain a workforce with up-to-date skills. However, employers are challenged to be...
Donna Reese
Professor Emerita, Mississippi State UniversityDonna Reese is Professor Emerita of Computer Science at Mississippi State University where she retired as Head of Computer Science and Engineering in 2017. She is currently serving as President of CSAB, the professional society for all computing accreditation as well as on the Computing Area Delegation, the Engineering Area Delegation and the Board of Delegates for ABET. Reese also serves as a lead facilitator for ABET’s Program Evaluator Training. She began her ABET service in 2005 as a PEV and was elected to the Computing Accreditation Commission in 2009. After serving on the ExCom of CAC from 2014-2017, she served as the Chair of the Computing Accreditation Commission in 2017-18. Reese was named an ABET Fellow in 2020.
Lawrence Jones
Former Distinguished Principal Researcher, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLawrence G. Jones’ 35+ years of ABET service includes: 2015-16 President, Accreditation Council Chair and Computing Accreditation Commission Chair. Lately, he has led projects to accredit associate programs in cybersecurity and bachelor degree programs in data science and helped investigate piloting ABET recognition of certificates.
Jones' U.S. Air Force career includes Chair of Computer Science at the USAF Academy. He retired from Carnegie-Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute as Distinguished Principal Researcher.
His B.S and M.S. in Industrial Engineering are from the University of Arkansas, and Ph.D. in Computer Science is from Vanderbilt. He is a Fellow of ABET and CSAB and recipient of ABET’s Grinter Award for Distinguished Service.
Barbara Price
Professor Emerita, Quantitative Analysis, Georgia Southern UniversityBarbara Price received her B.S. degree in mathematics from Grove City College and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in statistics from Virginia Tech. Her academic career began at New River Community College before accepting positions at other schools including: Radford University, Mississippi State University, Lynchburg College, Winthrop University and Georgia Southern University. At Georgia Southern, Price served as Department Chair in the College of Business Administration, Founding Director of the School of Information Technology, Professor of Quantitative Analysis and Interim Associate Vice President for Continuing Education. She served as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. She was recognized as a Fellow of CSAB and a Fellow of ABET in 2013.
Price’s ABET service includes her current role as Secretary of the ABET Board of Directors, past member of the Computing Area Delegation and the Board of Delegates, Lead/Support Facilitator for PEVC Training, member of the Accreditation Council Training Committee and CAC Chair for the 2012-2013 cycle.
John Vian
Technical Fellow, BoeingDr. John Vian is a Boeing Technical Fellow working in advanced flight automation, urban air mobility concepts and collaborative education initiatives in Ethiopia. Vian has served ABET since 1997 in various roles, including: IEEE Program Evaluator, Engineering Accreditation Commissioner, Executive Committee/Editor 1, Team Chair, Engineering Area Delegation and Board of Delegates.
Jessica Silwick
CFO/COO, ABETJessica Silwick is both CFO and COO for ABET. As CFO, she is responsible for developing ABET’s financial management strategy, budget development, forecasting and the integrity of the financial information. Silwick is also responsible for monitoring investments of strategic reserves. As COO, Silwick oversees communications and marketing, professional assessment offerings, office operations, overall management of Human Resources and serves as Lead Internal Auditor for ABET’s Quality Management System to ensure continued ISO compliance and certification.
Prior to ABET, Silwick gained experience working for large organizations in the manufacturing, pharmaceutical and energy fields. Silwick earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame of Maryland and an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler School of Business. She is also an active Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and has earned professional certificates from Yale and Cornell Universities. In 2015, Silwick received the AICPA’s Women to Watch, Emerging Leader Award by the Greater Washington Society of CPAs. Outside her busy professional life, Silwick enjoys practicing yoga and hiking with her husband, two children and dogs.
Use of Performance Indicators for Program Assessment
Performance indicators are a critically important educational tool for programs, both in setting course objectives and in helping students understand expectations of their learning by the time they complete the program. As such, performance indicators should be developed through a consensus among the faculty and, once assessed, the results should be reviewed to determine the actions to take to improve student learning and the assessment process. This session will highlight the experience of a mature program that engaged faculty in the development of performance indicators through the creation of student outcome “Champion Groups.” Learn how the performance indicators can be monitored throughout the curriculum at varying stages of student development. Further discussions will cover faculty engagement in the assessment process, details of performance indicator development, suggested plans for their integration throughout the curriculum and best practices.
Performance indicators are a critically important educational tool for programs, both in setting course objectives and in helping students understand expectations of their learning by the time they complete the program. As such, performance indicators should be developed through a consensus among the faculty and,...
Christina Haden
Associate Teaching Professor, Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, Lehigh UniversityDr. Christina Viau Haden is a faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department at Lehigh University. Her research involves the material property prediction of additively manufactured metals. Besides her research, a passion for teaching has lead her to co-develop of a new interdisciplinary course at Lehigh at the intersection of art and engineering on the topic of Leonardo da Vinci's life works. Haden also leads her department's ABET accreditation process, enjoys being an ABET facilitator and serves as the chair of her department's undergraduate curriculum committee. Haden is also deeply committed to improving the retention rates of women in STEM. She runs a yearly three-day welcome event for incoming engineering freshwomen at Lehigh University, offers a mentoring program for women in her department and advises the Society for Women Engineers (SWE) and Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) local chapter, among others.
Gloria Rogers
Senior Adjunct Director, Professional Offerings, ABETGloria Rogers, Ph.D., is currently serving as a Senior Adjunct Director for Professional Offerings at ABET. She is also the Assessment and Data Analyst for Indiana State University’s Physician Assistant program and Senior Scholar Emerita for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association. She has been providing workshops, webinars, seminars and institutes for the development of continuous quality improvement of educational programs and institutional effectiveness related to strategic planning for over three decades. She has been an external evaluator for major science, math, engineering and technology initiatives and has served as Chair of two national advisory committees and been a member of numerous review panels for the National Science Foundation. She has served as a reviewer for the Fulbright Senior Scholars program and has been a special editor for two issues of the International Journal of Engineering Education.
Rogers has authored assessment‐related articles, given invited presentations at national and international conferences and facilitated workshops/seminars on over 80 campuses. In addition to her local and national involvement in assessment and educational reform, she has given invited presentations, consultations and workshops in 31 countries including a Fulbright Senior Scholar assignment in Lima, Peru. In 2008, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education for her contributions to the engineering education profession.
Engineering Change Lab (ECL) USA: Challenges of the 21st Century and Engineering Leadership
The world is experiencing a wave of change accelerated by technological progress, evolving societal needs and expectations, and growing environmental imperatives. To help society successfully confront these challenges and flourish as this future unfolds, the engineering community must dramatically adapt. We must step up our contributions as stewards of technology, the natural and built environments, and the public health, safety, and welfare to shape the future for the benefit of society. This imperative has driven the formation and evolution of Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL), a non-profit, social change lab that seeks to be a catalyst for change within the engineering community. ECL convenes individuals from across the engineering community to share perspectives, provoke new ways of thinking, deepen understanding of the engineering community’s emerging future, and launch experiments and focused initiatives. We hope to inspire change leaders who can develop and lead solutions to create a resilient, thriving world. We serve as a connector, convener, and communications hub, complementing the work of other engineering organizations. Learn more at ECL-USA.org. ECL has held 16 summits over the last five years. Each summit is a deep dive into an issue that is important to advancing the contributions of the engineering community. Previous summits have focused on topics that are internal to the engineering community (diversity, education, licensure, and impacts of emerging technologies) as well as topics related to the external role of the engineering community in society (macro-ethics, public policy, climate change, and racial inequality). This session will provide an overview of ECL and will focus on learning from ECL summits regarding the leadership needed from the engineering community to increase our contributions to the challenges of the 21st century. The session will include opportunities for audience interaction, which is at the core of ECL learning principles.
The world is experiencing a wave of change accelerated by technological progress, evolving societal needs and expectations, and growing environmental imperatives. To help society successfully confront these challenges and flourish as this future unfolds, the engineering community must dramatically adapt. We must step up our...
Mike McMeekin
President & Executive Director, Engineering Change Lab USAMike McMeekin is one of the founders of Engineering Change Lab-USA (ECL), a non-profit focused on the future of engineering and fostering change in engineering that will increase its contributions in support of a more resilient society. He became ECL’s first President/Executive Director in 2019. McMeekin served as President of Lamp Rynearson, an engineering, landscape architecture and surveying firm headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, from 1997-2017. Following his tenure as President, he served as Chairman of the Board and Senior Advisor from 2017-2021. He has over 45 years of engineering experience and has played a leadership role in numerous signature projects in the Omaha area.
McMeekin is a graduate of the American Council of Engineering Companies’ Senior Executives Institute, an advanced management, leadership and public policy training program for current and emerging leaders of engineering and architectural firms.
Top 10+ Tips for Writing Good Self-Study Reports
This presentation is designed for representatives from ABET accredited programs or those interested in seeking initial ABET accreditation. In either case, the session will help programs proactively prepare for future accreditation reviews by providing guidance on writing effective self-study reports (SSRs). A program’s SSR is a critical document in achieving a successful accreditation evaluation, but writing an effective document efficiently remains a challenge even for experienced programs. The presenters will provide insights from the viewpoint of having read many SSRs, addressing topics like initial preparation, organization of the work effort, critical content, formatting and additional materials.
This presentation is designed for representatives from ABET accredited programs or those interested in seeking initial ABET accreditation. In either case, the session will help programs proactively prepare for future accreditation reviews by providing guidance on writing effective self-study reports (SSRs). A program’s SSR is...
Larraine Kapka
Professor Emeritus, Sinclair CollegeLarraine Kapka is a Professor Emeritus at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Missouri in Mechanical Engineering and has M.S. degrees from both the University of Central Missouri (Industrial Management) and the University of Dayton (Mechanical Engineering). She is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio, where her disciplinary specialty is Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning. Before working in academia full-time, Kapka served in the Air Force and spent 20 years working in industry as a Department of Energy contractor. She has significant experience preparing self-studies for ABET visits at her own institution as a faculty member, Department Chair and Assistant Dean. She has served as an ABET evaluator and team chair for several years. She is the current Engineering Technology Accreditation Director for ABET. Besides being an ABET Director and Evaluator, she has been the chair for the subcommittee designing training for new PEVs (PEVC training). She spends hours each year updating and teaching in this course. She is proud of two awards she earned while working in Industry: being named an “Energy Manager of the Year” by the Department of Energy, and receiving a national Federal Energy Efficiency award. As an academic, she received the Rousche Excellence in Teaching award from the League for Innovation. Besides her work in ABET, she remains active in both ASHRAE and ASME, serving on the ASME Committee for Engineering Technology Accreditation and as a national scholarship evaluator.
Jean Blair
Professor of Computer Science, United States Military AcademyJean R. S. Blair is the EECS Distinguished Professor for Innovation and a Professor of Computer Science at the United States Military Academy where she previously held positions as deputy to the Chief Academic Officer, director of the Computer Science Program and director of the Information Systems Engineering Program. She spent several sabbatical years at the University in Bergen, Norway, where she served as a visiting professor and senior research scientist. Before joining the USMA faculty in 1994, Blair spent eight years on the faculty at the University of Tennessee and worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a research scientist. Blair earned her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and her B.S. degree from Allegheny College, double majoring in Economics and Computer Science. Her research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for combinatorial problems, with recent emphasis on graph algorithms and curricular design for emerging computing disciplines. She is author of numerous academic articles and has received research grants and awards from various agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Labs.
Blair serves as a commissioner and team chair for the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET and is a member of the CAC Executive Committee. She volunteers as an accreditation team member for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, has been active in local and regional leadership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), was on the Steering Committee for the Cyber Education Project, has been a member of the working groups that developed accreditation criteria for Data Science programs, was a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Computing and Information, and was a guest editor for Discrete Mathematics. Blair is a senior member of IEEE, a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). She is a member of the international honor society for the computing and information disciplines (Upsilon Pi Epsilon), the international honor society in social sciences (Pi Gamma Mu) and was an Alden Scholar at Allegheny College.
Lu Yuan
Professor of Occupational Safety, Health and Environment, Southeastern Louisiana UniversityDr. Lu Yuan, CSP, is Professor of Occupational Safety, Health and Environment at Southeastern Louisiana University. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Yuan has been extensively involved in occupational ergonomic and safety research in construction and other industrial sectors. He is a professional member of American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP). Yuan was awarded the William E. Tarrants Outstanding Safety Educator of the Year by ASSP in 2015 for his innovative approach to teaching, incorporating new technology and teaching approaches to reach the students. He received the Craft Workforce Development Champion Award from the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance in 2016 for his academic leadership in the field. He currently serves as a Member-at-Large of the ABET Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission Executive Committee.
Janet Callahan
Dean, College of Engineering, Michigan Technological UniversityDr. Janet Callahan, Ph.D., serves as Dean of the College of Engineering at Michigan Technological University. She is a member of the Engineering Accreditation Council's Executive Committee of ABET. Callahan's service to ABET has included more than 25 visits since 2004. In her role with ABET, she has served as PEV for three different societies. Across her career, she has served in many roles: first in a research capacity where she established her career in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at Georgia Tech. She then went on to help establish the new MSE department at Boise State University, where she also served as Associate Dean and Chair as she worked to broaden participation in the engineering fields across the region. Now Callahan serves as Dean of the College of Engineering at Michigan Technological University. Callahan's work has been recognized by her societies; she is a Fellow of the American Ceramics Society and the American Society for Engineering Education.
Ask Me Anything: Assessment Discussion Den
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Assessment Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all assessment-related questions and our experts will answer them.
Each Discussion Den brings ABET thought leaders together with Symposium attendees for an informal and enlightening discussion on a specific topic. These are organic conversations. There is no agenda or PowerPoint presentation. The audience’s questions and experiences build an inquisitive conversation that the group leaders guide with their insight and expertise.
Discussion Dens allow attendees to learn from the group leaders as well as from the questions and experiences of their peers.
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Assessment Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all assessment-related questions and our experts will answer them. Each Discussion Den brings ABET thought leaders together with Symposium attendees for an informal and enlightening discussion on a specific...
Robyn Hall
Director, Professional Programs, ABETRobyn Hall serves as ABET’s Director of Professional Programs. In her current capacity, she oversees ABET’s portfolio of assessment education. Prior to this, Hall served as the Assistant Vice President for Seminars and Digital Learning at AACSB International. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from Eckerd College, MBA from the Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa and, more recently, her Master Trainer certificate from the Association for Talent Development (ATD).
James Warnock
Professor and Founding Chair, School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, University of GeorgiaJames N. Warnock is a professor and the founding chair of the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. Before coming to Athens, Warnock served as the associate dean for academic affairs at Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering. He earned a doctorate in chemical engineering and a master’s in biochemical engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, before completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Warnock has conducted research in the areas of cell and gene biomanufacturing, bioreactor design, tissue engineering and cellular mechanobiology. He is actively involved in engineering education research and has earned international acclaim for his work using problem-based learning to enable students to develop professional skills. He currently serves as the director for Engineering Workforce Development for the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT).
Warnock is an adjunct director of professional offerings for ABET. In this role, he facilitates the planning, production and execution of the organization’s professional development programming and directs activities related to educational offerings and workshop-facilitator training.
Daina Briedis
Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment, Michigan State UniversityDaina M. Briedis, Ph.D., is currently an Adjunct Director of Professional Offerings at ABET. She also serves as Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment in the College of Engineering at Michigan State University and is a faculty member and ABET Coordinator in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Over the past 32 years, Briedis has served ABET as a program evaluator for AIChE, a team chair and member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), the first chair of the EAC Training and Materials Development Committee and an Executive Committee member of the EAC. She was a program evaluator on one of the very first “EC2000” visits and subsequently chaired several new criteria visits. Briedis has been an AIChE Representative Director on the ABET Board of Directors and has been involved in the design teams for the new program evaluator and train-the-trainers training materials. She is a lead facilitator for the program evaluator training sessions. She also consults in the area of accreditation and assessment and evaluation and serves on the Board of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). She was elected a Fellow of ABET in 2007, a Fellow of the AIChE in 2011 and a Fellow of ASEE in 2015. She is an ABET Senior IDEAL Scholar.
Effective Teamwork Assessment in Online Courses
With the convenience of online courses, many students are opting for online alternatives to traditional onsite courses. Universities have responded and have provided courses in a variety of formats to meet student needs. Moving courses online, however, posts a challenge to teamwork assessment that is usually done in a synchronous in-person fashion. Teamwork in university courses develop collaboration, communication, and professional skills necessary for the workforce. In traditional onsite courses students can easily meet with teammates in person and set expectations for individual members. Teamwork activities in onsite courses can be assessed through a variety of methods during class time. In contrast, online courses have many challenges when assessing teamwork. Students may be geographically diverse, making it difficult to schedule meetings. Program files and data must be transferred between students asynchronously. How can teamwork be effectively assessed in online courses?
With the convenience of online courses, many students are opting for online alternatives to traditional onsite courses. Universities have responded and have provided courses in a variety of formats to meet student needs. Moving courses online, however, posts a challenge to teamwork assessment that is...
Gina Cooper
Senior Professor, DeVry UniversityDr. Gina Cooper has been teaching at DeVry University since June 1999. She received her undergraduate degree from Ohio State University in Mechanical Engineering, Master’s Degree from Ohio State University in Industrial Engineering and Ph.D. from Wright State University in Computer Science and Engineering with specializations of database, math and bioinformatics. She has presented her bioinformatics research at an IEEE International Bioinformatics Conference in Taiwan in May 2004 and in Las Vegas in July 2009. Since then she has published papers in the proceedings of computer science education conferences relating to courses she developed and improved. Since joining DeVry, Cooper's instructional area of focus is information systems.
Jingdi Zeng
Professor, DeVry UniversityDr. Jingdi "Rebecca" Zeng received her Ph. D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology. She joined DeVry University after working as a research and development scientist in different institutions. As the faculty chair of Colleges and Curriculum, her main responsibility is the curriculum development and assessment of the Information Technology (IT) and Cybersecurity programs. Holding various industry certifications, Zeng is a seasoned Cisco Networking Academy instructor and an AWS Academy accredited educator. She is a long-time IEEE member, an ABET program evaluator and a strong advocate and mentor for women in STEM.
New to Leading Program Assessment? Here is My Journey
Starting as an assessment leader can seem like a daunting task. You may not have all the answers for your program’s unique needs or know where your journey will lead. This talk showcases the speaker’s perspective of leading program assessment of multiple programs on two campuses from 2014 to present. During this time, she created and coordinated the process for assessment and continuous improvement of two programs, including an engineering program spanning two campuses - a unique case for program assessment. Tools created for assessment and data visualization during this period evolved over the years to support and document continuous improvement activities. ABET’s professional development opportunities were key to this work, facilitating the speaker’s expertise and opening doors to greater opportunities for service.
Starting as an assessment leader can seem like a daunting task. You may not have all the answers for your program’s unique needs or know where your journey will lead. This talk showcases the speaker’s perspective of leading program assessment of multiple programs on two...
Alisa Gilmore
Associate Professor of Practice, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska – LincolnAlisa N. Gilmore is an Associate Professor of Practice in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She teaches courses in circuits, robotics and control systems, serves as the chair of the Continuous Improvement of Teaching and Learning committee in the College of Engineering, and oversees assessment in the ECE department. Gilmore is passionate about engineering education at the college level, implementing research-based instructional practices for in-person, remote, blended and distance classrooms to tackle student engagement and student learning outcome attainment. She is a program evaluator for ABET's Engineering Accreditation Commission, a Senior IEEE member and a 2016 ABET IDEAL Scholar.
Understanding the Use of Rubrics in Program Assessment
The use of rubrics is common in program assessment. However, not all rubrics are equal in clarity and usefulness. This session will explore ways to develop and use rubrics that will engage faculty through efficient methods and drive meaningful improvements. Topics to be explored are types of rubrics, scoring variations and faculty engagement. This presentation will demonstrate examples of rubric types and share experiences of engaging faculty.
The use of rubrics is common in program assessment. However, not all rubrics are equal in clarity and usefulness. This session will explore ways to develop and use rubrics that will engage faculty through efficient methods and drive meaningful improvements. Topics to be explored are...
Gloria Rogers
Senior Adjunct Director, Professional Offerings, ABETGloria Rogers, Ph.D., is currently serving as a Senior Adjunct Director for Professional Offerings at ABET. She is also the Assessment and Data Analyst for Indiana State University’s Physician Assistant program and Senior Scholar Emerita for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association. She has been providing workshops, webinars, seminars and institutes for the development of continuous quality improvement of educational programs and institutional effectiveness related to strategic planning for over three decades. She has been an external evaluator for major science, math, engineering and technology initiatives and has served as Chair of two national advisory committees and been a member of numerous review panels for the National Science Foundation. She has served as a reviewer for the Fulbright Senior Scholars program and has been a special editor for two issues of the International Journal of Engineering Education.
Rogers has authored assessment‐related articles, given invited presentations at national and international conferences and facilitated workshops/seminars on over 80 campuses. In addition to her local and national involvement in assessment and educational reform, she has given invited presentations, consultations and workshops in 31 countries including a Fulbright Senior Scholar assignment in Lima, Peru. In 2008, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education for her contributions to the engineering education profession.
Karen Tarnoff
Associate Dean, East Tennessee State UniversityKaren Tarnoff, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean for Assessment and International Programs for the College of Business and Technology at East Tennessee State University. In this capacity, she coordinates the assessment of student learning outcomes across seven diverse departments (i.e., Accountancy; Economics and Finance; Management and Marketing; Computing; Military Science; and Engineering, Engineering Technology, Surveying; and Digital Media) and multiple accrediting bodies (i.e., SACS, AACSB, ABET, NASAD, CIDA). She has given numerous presentations on assurance of learning and assessment-related topics and, likewise, has helped many schools develop, implement and refine their assessment systems. Tarnoff is a Global Lead Facilitator for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) having authored materials for its Assurance of Learning I and II Seminars and having served as a seminar facilitator since 2005. Tarnoff is pleased to be joining ABET to facilitate Fundamentals of Program Assessment Workshops and create content for other offerings. Her primary areas of research include assessment of student learning, the skills gap, team-based work systems and shared mental models.
Peace Engineering: Actionable Knowledge
Peace Engineering is the application of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) principles, sustainable practices, cultural sensitivity and innovation to promote and support peace, and its profile is rising among institutions around the world. Peace Engineering’s mission is to actively cultivate a culture of peace, and this mission requires that peace engineers be well-rounded global thinkers and doers, cognizant of: (i) their professional and personal ethical responsibilities; (ii) their role in society as citizen engineers and/or scientists, practitioners or policymakers; and (iii) the intended and unintended consequences of their decisions on the design, planning, trusted data collection and processing generating actionable knowledge, management, and operation of projects in different socioeconomic, cultural and political situations. Peace engineering is defined not only by its sociotechnical application, but by its ethos and aims with an agenda formulated in service to social justice. Notably, there are urgent calls to action by the NAE, the Nobel Prize Summit, the UN and scientists worldwide to address and solve crucial and widely recognized global challenges to peace and security before they become more complex and more environmentally, financially, and socially costly; before we reach the point of no return. Peace Engineering answers these calls by recognizing the important contribution that engineering, the hard and social sciences and other disciplines such as law and finance make toward the building of a more sustainable, stable, secure, equitable and peaceful world.
Peace Engineering is the application of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) principles, sustainable practices, cultural sensitivity and innovation to promote and support peace, and its profile is rising among institutions around the world. Peace Engineering’s mission is to actively cultivate a culture of...
Ramiro Jordan
Associate Dean of Engineering for Global Initiatives, University of New MexicoDr. Ramiro Jordan is a scientist, innovator, educator and entrepreneur. He is a member of the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of New Mexico. Currently, he is the Associate Dean of Engineering for Global Initiatives. His research activities include sustainability, Peace Engineering, smart grids, cognitive radio, multidimensional signal processing, and software development. He is the founder of the Ibero-American Consortium for Science and Technology Education (ISTEC), December 1990.He was the president of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), Nov. 2018-2020. He is a founding member of the Peace Engineering Consortium, outcome of the first global conference on Peace Engineering, Nov. 2018, Albuquerque, NM.
ESPOL’s Educational Model and Accreditation, and How We Integrate Both
ESPOL’s journey started in 2007, and reached its first objective in 2012 when two programs were ABET accredited, and since then has taken good pace with 13 (68% of total) accredited programs by the end of 2020. ESPOL is the only public university in Ecuador that keeps ABET accreditation and ranks second among South American universities by number of accredited programs. At the beginning, ESPOL adopted ABET accreditation as the educational model (EM), but years after realized that an original and self-developed EM was needed. This led us to design by 2021 our own EM, which includes accreditation as the keystone for quality assurance; however, the EM allows other non-engineering programs to work with different accreditation agencies (four in total), as well as to adapt to local needs of students and the labor professional market. Our EM is student-centered and competence-based, for which we had to align our competences definitions with our educational objectives and ABET’s student outcomes.
ESPOL’s journey started in 2007, and reached its first objective in 2012 when two programs were ABET accredited, and since then has taken good pace with 13 (68% of total) accredited programs by the end of 2020. ESPOL is the only public university in Ecuador...
Paul Herrera
Vicerrector (Provost), Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL)Dr. Paul Herrera has received academic training in Agricultural Economics and Business Administration and professional experience in education management. He has held various leading positions in scientific research and academic management at the national and international level. Over the last five years, Herrera has been the general Vice Chancellor (provost) of Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) in Guayaquil-Ecuador, after being Dean of Graduate Programs (2012 and 2015). ESPOL is the only public university in Ecuador that has reached international accreditation with four different agencies and ranks second among south American countries by number of ABET accredited programs.
Ask Me Anything: International Accreditation Discussion Den
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): International Accreditation Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all international accreditation-related questions and our experts will answer them. Join ABET Chief Accreditation Officer Joe Sussman, Senior Director of Accreditation Operations Jane Emmet and Manager of International Accreditation Sherri Hersh to discuss the topics that are most important to you.
Each Discussion Den brings ABET thought leaders together with Symposium attendees for an informal and enlightening discussion on a specific topic. These are organic conversations. There is no agenda or PowerPoint presentation. The audience’s questions and experiences build an inquisitive conversation that the group leaders guide with their insight and expertise.
Discussion Dens allow attendees to learn from the group leaders as well as from the questions and experiences of their peers.
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): International Accreditation Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all international accreditation-related questions and our experts will answer them. Join ABET Chief Accreditation Officer Joe Sussman, Senior Director of Accreditation Operations Jane Emmet and Manager of International...
Jane Emmet
Senior Director, Accreditation Operations, ABETJane Emmet has been responsible for the management and administration of ABET’s accreditation policies and procedures and the overall operations of ABET’s accreditation processes since November, 2015. She joined ABET in January of 2014 as the Training Manager responsible for the training of the over 2,000 volunteer professionals who serve ABET. Her background, prior to joining ABET, includes directing and managing training and leadership development programs at professional service organizations, energy companies and developing education programs for history museums. Jane holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in History/Education and a master’s degree in Museum Education from The George Washington University. She also holds a Graduate Certificate from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in Instructional Systems Design.
Sherri Hersh
Manager of International Accreditation, ABETSherri Hersh has been with ABET for nearly 16 years. Originally a member of the ECEI (Engineering Credentials Evaluation International) team, she joined the Accreditation Department in late 2006 when ABET decided to undertake accreditation activities for programs outside the U.S. In just over 13 years, Hersh has seen ABET’s international market grow to accredit programs in 41 countries around the world.
Hersh holds a master’s degree in management from New York University.
Daniela Iacona
Director for International Engagement and Governance, ABETDaniela Iacona is the Director for International Engagement and Governance at ABET, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that accredits college and university-level programs in the disciplines of applied & natural sciences, computing, engineering, and engineering technology worldwide. Ms. Iacona has supported ABET’s mission for over fifteen years and has played a key role in the development and implementation of its global operations plan. Ms. Iacona currently oversees all of ABET’s international initiatives, including its engagement in mutual recognition agreements, memoranda of understanding, and global outreach and collaboration activities.
In her dual role, Ms. Iacona is also responsible for managing all operational activities related to the governance of ABET. In this capacity, she is responsible for leading all Board of Directors, Board of Delegates, four Area Delegations and affiliated Council and Committees operational functions.
Ms. Iacona earned her Master of Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and baccalaureate in International Studies from Old Dominion University. She has also earned ASAE’s Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation.
Joe Sussman
Chief Accreditation Officer and Chief Information Officer, ABETAs chief accreditation officer and chief information officer since 2011, Joe Sussman leads ABET’s global accreditation operations, collaborating with the organization’s volunteer leadership in both tactical execution and strategic development of ABET’s accreditation practice. Previously, he spent 26 years as an engineering leader and senior business executive at Bayer AG, leading many of the company’s quality, manufacturing, and IT efforts. After retiring from Bayer he became an industry specialist at Deloitte Consulting, where he worked with many global clients. Before joining the ABET staff, he served for 24 years in nearly every volunteer capacity, including as program evaluator for mechanical engineering programs, chair of the Engineering Accreditation Commission, representative director from ASME on the ABET Board of Directors, and president (2008–2009). He was inducted as an ABET fellow in 2002 after having played a pivotal role in implementing the ground-breaking Engineering Criteria 2000. In 2011 he was elected an ASME fellow for his contributions to quality in engineering education, and in 2015 he received the Linton E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the technical disciplines through his work in accreditation. He earned his baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
Boiled Frog or Adapt? Tackling Changes in Higher Education
Society’s expectations of higher education are undergoing rapid and profound change. Increasingly, the value of a college education is being challenged. Prospective students are looking at alternatives to a four-year degree, including such options as boot camps and certificates. Employers are also looking at these alternatives as ways to maintain a workforce with up-to-date, job-relevant skills. Higher ed’s credibility and relevance is at serious risk. Does your program know how to adapt and institute meaningful change? While there has been some response by academe, the authors’ experiences are that program leaders and faculty are generally ill-equipped to understand how to recognize the need for change and then institute it. Together, the authors have over 70 years’ experience in helping organizations to institute change. In this session we share some of our experience by presenting models of change management and practical methods and tips for managing change.
Society’s expectations of higher education are undergoing rapid and profound change. Increasingly, the value of a college education is being challenged. Prospective students are looking at alternatives to a four-year degree, including such options as boot camps and certificates. Employers are also looking at these...
Lawrence Jones
Former Distinguished Principal Researcher, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLawrence G. Jones’ 35+ years of ABET service includes: 2015-16 President, Accreditation Council Chair and Computing Accreditation Commission Chair. Lately, he has led projects to accredit associate programs in cybersecurity and bachelor degree programs in data science and helped investigate piloting ABET recognition of certificates.
Jones' U.S. Air Force career includes Chair of Computer Science at the USAF Academy. He retired from Carnegie-Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute as Distinguished Principal Researcher.
His B.S and M.S. in Industrial Engineering are from the University of Arkansas, and Ph.D. in Computer Science is from Vanderbilt. He is a Fellow of ABET and CSAB and recipient of ABET’s Grinter Award for Distinguished Service.
Susan Schall
Founder and Lead Consultant, SOS ConsultingSusan O. Schall is Founder of SOS Consulting. She has 35 years of experience with manufacturing, non-profit and higher education clients using engineering, statistical and process improvement methods. Schall also held engineering and leadership roles at RR Donnelley, GE Lighting, DuPont and Kodak. Schall is a Fellow of ABET and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). She has been on the ABET Board and Engineering Accreditation Commission. As the first ABET Adjunct Training Director, she transformed PEV training.
Schall's B.S. in Mathematics is from SUNY Fredonia, and B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State. She is an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence and Certified Prosci Change Practitioner.
EAC: Tips for Meeting the EAC ABET Criteria
This session will discuss commonly identified shortcomings and how to avoid them when seeking ABET accreditation for an EAC program. In addition, common criteria terminology will be defined and explained to better understand requirements. The presentation will also discuss statistics on shortcoming findings.
Patsy Brackin
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of TechnologyPatsy Brackin is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where she also serves as Director of Engineering Design. Her B.S. and M.S. are from the University of Tennessee and her Ph.D. is from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has significant industry experience and is a licensed professional engineer as well as a Fellow of ASME and ABET. Brackin has been involved in several areas of ABET accreditation, including her position as her departmental ABET coordinator and member of ASME’s Committee on Engineering Accreditation. She has also served as a Program Evaluator, Team Chair and a member of the EAC Executive Committee, where she also served as chair of the Criteria Committee.
Philip Schenewerk
Retired Geological and Petroleum EngineerPhilip "Phil" Schenewerk has served as an ABET volunteer since 1989 and is currently a member of the EAC Executive Committee. He is a retired geological and petroleum engineer with a B.S. degree in Earth Sciences from the University of New Orleans, an M.S. in Geological Engineering and a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering, both from the University of Oklahoma at Norman. He is a Distinguished Member of Society of Petroleum Engineers and a licensed Professional Engineer and Professional Geologist.
Using a Human-Centered Engineering Design Framework to Connect ABET Outcomes to Learning Objectives and Performance Indicators in Engineering Courses
Anecdotally, engineering faculty often find it challenging to connect ABET outcomes to learning objectives or performance indicators in engineering courses. To support engineering faculty, we developed an evidence-based human-centered engineering design (HCED) framework that connects ABET outcomes to engineering design activities and human-centered design mindsets and processes. Faculty members can use the framework to evaluate their existing courses, identify opportunity areas for incorporating HCED elements, develop new HCED-related course learning objectives, define students’ performance indicators, and connect the objectives and indicators to ABET’s student learning outcomes. The framework can also assist faculty members in visualizing learning trajectories, developing assessment tools, and making organizational changes. In this session, we will present the framework and showcase its utility in the context of an introduction to electronics course.
Anecdotally, engineering faculty often find it challenging to connect ABET outcomes to learning objectives or performance indicators in engineering courses. To support engineering faculty, we developed an evidence-based human-centered engineering design (HCED) framework that connects ABET outcomes to engineering design activities and human-centered design mindsets...
Saadeddine Shehab
Associate Director of Assessment and Research, Siebel Center for DesignSaadeddine Shehab is currently the Associate Director of Assessment and Research at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on understanding students’ collaborative problem solving interactions and the role of the teacher in facilitating these interactions in contexts that feature the teaching and learning of STEM disciplines through design. At SCD, Shehab conducts design-based research to inform the design and implementation of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development that facilitate the teaching and learning of HCD in formal and informal learning environments. Shehab has been collaborating with design strategists, undergraduate and graduate students, and instructors of all backgrounds and multiple units on campus to analyze and explore issues associated with the teaching and learning of HCD in different contexts, co-design instructional tools that facilitate the teaching and learning of HCD in these contexts and collect data and conduct appropriate analyses to evaluate and reflect on the efficacy of these tools and inform future iterations. This research work has been accepted and presented at different education conferences such as the American Education Research Association (AERA), the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS), the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE).
Taylor Tucker
Engineering Education Fellow, Siebel Center for Design (SCD), University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignTaylor Tucker is an engineering education Fellow at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She currently co-leads a collaborative human-centered engineering design integration project in partnership with the Grainger College of Engineering. She earned her undergraduate degree in engineering mechanics (BSEM) and master’s degree in curriculum and instruction (MSCI, Digital Environments for Learning, Teaching, and Agency program) from Illinois.
Tucker's research primarily focuses on the promotion and development of collaboration skills and cognitive engagement in undergraduate engineering tasks. She has collaborated in designing and evaluating the implementation of ill-structured tasks in introductory engineering courses, with findings presented at conferences such as the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the American Education Research Association (AERA), and the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). As part of her work at SCD, she also developed and deployed a team-based, weeklong human-centered design summer camp for high school students that guides campers in completing an introductory, hands-on design task. Her stake in the future of engineering education has been shaped by two underlying values: 1) ill-structured problem solving in design tasks that are both authentic to industry and able to address novel societal challenges and 2) relevant hands-on learning.
Alex Pagano
Siebel Center for Design Research ScholarAlex Pagano is a Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois as well as an SCD Scholar with the Siebel Center for Design. He earned his undergraduate degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona and master’s degree in Mechanical Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois. Pagano's research focus is on engineering design education, specifically exploring the development of engineering requirements. He is currently working on a project which uses natural language processing methods to explore how students reach a shared understanding of a design problem.
In his role with SCD, Pagano works in curriculum and program design and development. He has worked with the Grainger College of Engineering to create Human Centered Engineering Design learning experiences in the Mechanical Science and Engineering, Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering programs, among others. Pagano's work in education is motivated by the need to build stronger connections between theoretical engineering and the lived experiences of people who are impacted by engineered systems. Beyond the classroom, Pagano has also worked in adaptive materials and structures where he designed a robot which uses origami-inspired folding mechanisms made from sheets of paper to create crawling worm-like locomotion.
Jenny Amos
Teaching Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignJennifer “Jenny” Amos, Ph.D., joined the Bioengineering Department at the University of Illinois in 2009 and is currently a Teaching Professor in Bioengineering with affiliations in Educational Psychology, Healthcare Systems Engineering and Medicine. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of South Carolina. She is an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Board of Director Member, two-time Fulbright Specialist in engineering education and has won multiple awards and recognitions for her teaching and scholarship of teaching. Outside of BMES, she has also worked to revolutionize the future of graduate medical education serving as a founding member of the new Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, a first-of-its-kind engineering-driven college of medicine. Amos is part of the Illinois NSF RED (Revolutionizing Engineering & Computer Science Departments) research team leading efforts to innovate assessment practices for engineering toward producing more holistic engineers. Amos has a decade’s worth of experience leading curriculum reform implementing robust assessment strategies at multiple institutions. Amos has served as an ABET PEV for BMES since 2012 and a commissioner for the Engineering Accreditation Commission at ABET from 2018 until 2021. She is 2011 IDEAL Scholar graduate and has been leading program assessment workshops since 2012.
Faculty Engagement in the Assessment Process
Sustainable program assessment and continuous quality improvement is a human process. Faculty are critical for success as they define student outcomes, assess student learning, evaluate data, design and implement changes, and assess impact. Unfortunately, many programs struggle to maintain sustainable assessment processes because faculty are not involved consistently or systematically. This is hardly surprising as faculty have a myriad of responsibilities, and participation in program assessment is seldom considered for promotion, tenure or annual evaluations. This session will offer key principles and practical tips to help assessment leaders engage faculty within their programs so outcomes-based assessment can drive program improvement and engineering education innovation. Topics we will cover include: Misconceptions faculty have about assessment, reasons assessment processes are unsustainable, practical techniques to engage faculty, key ways to manage program improvement.
Sustainable program assessment and continuous quality improvement is a human process. Faculty are critical for success as they define student outcomes, assess student learning, evaluate data, design and implement changes, and assess impact. Unfortunately, many programs struggle to maintain sustainable assessment processes because faculty are...
James Warnock
Professor and Founding Chair, School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, University of GeorgiaJames N. Warnock is a professor and the founding chair of the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. Before coming to Athens, Warnock served as the associate dean for academic affairs at Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering. He earned a doctorate in chemical engineering and a master’s in biochemical engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, before completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Warnock has conducted research in the areas of cell and gene biomanufacturing, bioreactor design, tissue engineering and cellular mechanobiology. He is actively involved in engineering education research and has earned international acclaim for his work using problem-based learning to enable students to develop professional skills. He currently serves as the director for Engineering Workforce Development for the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT).
Warnock is an adjunct director of professional offerings for ABET. In this role, he facilitates the planning, production and execution of the organization’s professional development programming and directs activities related to educational offerings and workshop-facilitator training.
CAC: Accreditation Anti-Patterns: Common Review Challenges
An anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being counter productive. This talk focusses on commonly seen anti-patterns based on the presenters’ experience as PEVs, team chairs and editors. While it does not provide a comprehensive list of things that could go wrong, it does offer advice on many commonly seen anti-patterns and offers advice to help an institution avoid them.
An anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being counter productive. This talk focusses on commonly seen anti-patterns based on the presenters’ experience as PEVs, team chairs and editors. While it does not provide a comprehensive list...
Michael Oudshoorn
Dean of the Webb School of Engineering, High Point UniversityDr. Michael Oudshoorn, Founding Dean of the School of Engineering at High Point University, graduated from the University of Adelaide, Australia, with a B.S. in 1983 and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1992, also from the University of Adelaide. Between 1984 and 2003 he was a faculty member in Computer Science at the University of Adelaide and served as the Associate Dean (International) for the College of Engineering, Mathematical and Computer Sciences. In 2003, he relocated to the U.S. and served as a faculty member, department chair or dean at several universities before joining High Point University in July 2018. Oudshoorn’s primary research interests are in distributed systems and autonomic systems. Oudshoorn is a member of the ASEE, IEEE and a Senior Member of the ACM. He is also an active member of ABET. He is a commissioner on the Computing Accreditation Commission and currently serves as a member of the executive committee.
Since joining High Point University staff, Oudshoorn has worked with the computer science faculty to revise the curriculum with a goal to seek ABET accreditation in the future. He has designed the Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs and secured approval from SACS for the university to offer these new programs. The Engineering programs commenced in August 2019.
Jean Blair
Professor of Computer Science, United States Military AcademyJean R. S. Blair is the EECS Distinguished Professor for Innovation and a Professor of Computer Science at the United States Military Academy where she previously held positions as deputy to the Chief Academic Officer, director of the Computer Science Program and director of the Information Systems Engineering Program. She spent several sabbatical years at the University in Bergen, Norway, where she served as a visiting professor and senior research scientist. Before joining the USMA faculty in 1994, Blair spent eight years on the faculty at the University of Tennessee and worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a research scientist. Blair earned her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and her B.S. degree from Allegheny College, double majoring in Economics and Computer Science. Her research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for combinatorial problems, with recent emphasis on graph algorithms and curricular design for emerging computing disciplines. She is author of numerous academic articles and has received research grants and awards from various agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Labs.
Blair serves as a commissioner and team chair for the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET and is a member of the CAC Executive Committee. She volunteers as an accreditation team member for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, has been active in local and regional leadership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), was on the Steering Committee for the Cyber Education Project, has been a member of the working groups that developed accreditation criteria for Data Science programs, was a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Computing and Information, and was a guest editor for Discrete Mathematics. Blair is a senior member of IEEE, a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). She is a member of the international honor society for the computing and information disciplines (Upsilon Pi Epsilon), the international honor society in social sciences (Pi Gamma Mu) and was an Alden Scholar at Allegheny College.
Rajendra Raj
Professor of Computer Science, Rochester Institute of TechnologyRajendra K. Raj, Ph.D., is a Professor of Computer Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). His research and teaching interests lie at the nexus of data science, cybersecurity and distributed computing. He has been an ABET Program Evaluator and Team Chair for almost two decades. Raj currently is a member of the CAC Executive Committee, served as the 2021-22 CAC Chair and is a Fellow of CSAB and ABET. Previously, as co-chair of the Joint CAC/CSAB Criteria Committee, he led the effort to revise accreditation criteria for all computing programs and develop cybersecurity program criteria. Before RIT, Raj was a vice president in information technology at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he designed, developed and managed proprietary, private-cloud global-infrastructures to support a variety of financial applications. He has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Graduate Readiness to Meet Industry Needs for Building a Resilient World
The ABET Industrial Advisory Council (IAC) provides ABET leadership with the perspectives of major employers on accreditation policy issues, works with company leaders to develop channels for Program Evaluator recruitment from industry and acts as an advocate for the meaning and value of ABET accreditation to major technical employers and other key ABET stakeholders — much as external advisory boards or industrial advisory boards (EABs or IABs) play a similar role for accredited programs. Members of the ABET IAC will provide perspectives on how graduates can be better prepared to achieve personal resilience as well as lead companies to be resilient in a rapidly changing and uncertain world. As a key part of the UN Sustainable Development goals, the session will focus on how quality education and gender equality can provide necessary long-term improvements in business and societal residence. Perspectives for programs on engaging IABs/EABs will also be provided.
The ABET Industrial Advisory Council (IAC) provides ABET leadership with the perspectives of major employers on accreditation policy issues, works with company leaders to develop channels for Program Evaluator recruitment from industry and acts as an advocate for the meaning and value of ABET accreditation...
Naguib Attia
Distinguished Engineer and Vice President (Retired), IBM Global University ProgramsDr. Naguib Attia was responsible for setting up IBM academic relations strategy, creating next generation global technical training programs in collaboration with universities, research institutions, and manage the overall award programs budgets. Previously, Attia was the VP& CTO of IBM Middle East and Africa. With over 25 years of industrial, manufacturing, research and academic experience, Attia has contributed to shape the development of IBM’s intellectual capital, industry insights and overall solution portfolio for IBM. His specializations include Cloud, Business Analytics, Security and Supply Chain optimization.
Attia was the chair of Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) Technical group, a Senior member of IEEE Computer Society, member of ChemIT and other industry organizations. Attia holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Essex, England.
Louis Gritzo
Chief Science Officer, FM GlobalDr. Louis "Lou" Gritzo is chief science officer and staff senior vice president for commercial property insurer FM Global, a leader in property loss prevention and business continuity. Gritzo is responsible for leading the strategic advancement of science and research at FM Global. He oversees a worldwide team of scientists with expertise in fire, explosions, natural hazards (windstorms, floods, freeze, hail and earthquakes), equipment risk and reliability, and cyber hazards. Prior to joining FM Global in 2006, Gritzo was manager of fire science and technology at Sandia National
He has served as chair of the board of directors of the Innovation Research Interchange (formerly the Industrial Research Institute), chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Heat Transfer Division Executive Committee, and on the governing board of the Global Earthquake Model, on the ABET Industrial Advisory Committee, on the Research Foundation Board of Trustees and Research Advisory Committee for the National Fire Protection Association, and on advisory committees for several universities. In 2015, he was an invited panelist for two sessions at the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Management in Sendai, Japan. He is also a contributing author to Forbes.com. Gritzo has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, with a minor in applied mathematics, from Texas Tech University, USA.
Hy Tran
Senior Scientist, Sandia National LaboratoriesDr. Hy Tran is a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. His work at Sandia focuses on metrology; he also contributes to Sandia’s R&D environment and R&D strategy. He has volunteered with ABET as a program evaluation volunteer since 2011, and as a team chair for the ABET Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission since 2020. He is a Fellow of ASME and a Senior Member of IEEE.
Tran holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from MIT.
Richard Hope
Chief Technical Officer, Americas, AECOMRichard Hope is the Chief Technical Officer, Americas, AECOM and ABET Industry Advisory Council Chair. AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management on projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public- and private-sector client.
Hope holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Teesside University, Middlesbrough, Tees Valley, UK.
Stormy Ducluzeau
Senior Director, AECOM’s Americas Talent Acquisition groupStormy Ducluzeau is Senior Director of AECOM’s Americas Talent Acquisition group, responsible for hiring strategies, best practices and leading a strong team of talent acquisition professionals. She has over 20 years of experience in recruitment for a variety of industries and is a proud veteran having served in the Air Force. Ducluzeau holds a B.A. in Technical Communications from the University of Maryland and earned her M.S. in Industrial Organizational psychology from Capella University. She lives in Augusta with her husband and son.
Engineering for One Planet Workshop: ABET-Aligned Resources to Bring Sustainability into your Classroom
Are you interested in learning how to integrate sustainability concepts and tools into your engineering curricula while meeting ABET Student Outcomes? Are you looking for free sustainability-focused resources and activities? Do you want to know more about the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Framework and how to use it in your courses and/or programs? Join Cindy Anderson and Dustyn Roberts — co-creators of the EOP Framework teaching guides — for a hands-on workshop about using the EOP Framework and Guides.
Workshop facilitators will:
- Familiarize participants with the EOP Framework and two companion teaching guides (Quick Start Activity Guide and Comprehensive Guide to Teaching Core Learning Outcomes)*
- Show participants how to address all seven ABET student outcomes
- Lead interactive sustainability-focused activities that participants can use in their classrooms
- Share a plethora of freely-available sustainability-focused resources and activities
*Participants should bring laptops/tablets to access online resources during the workshop.
Are you interested in learning how to integrate sustainability concepts and tools into your engineering curricula while meeting ABET Student Outcomes? Are you looking for free sustainability-focused resources and activities? Do you want to know more about the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Framework and...
Cindy Anderson
Consultant, Founder & CEO, Alula Consulting; Consultant, Engineering for One Planet, The Lemelson FoundationCindy Anderson (she/her/hers) is the founder and CEO of Alula Consulting and Consultant, Engineering for One Planet, The Lemelson Foundation. Anderson specializes in innovative sustainability- and online-focused research and curriculum projects for academic institutions, non-profits, government, and corporations. She has taught thousands of people through courses and workshops, around the world and online, in the fields of biology, sustainability, and biomimicry. She is honored to be a collaborative partner on the Engineering for One Planet initiative since its inception, co-author of the EOP Framework and new framework integration guides, and active EOP Network Member.
Anderson holds a M.S. from Oregon State University, a MEd from Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), a BSc in biology from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) and a graduate certificate in public health from the University of Montana.
Dustyn Roberts
Practice Associate Professor, University of PennsylvaniaDustyn Roberts (she/her/hers) is a Practice Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, a consultant through dustynrobots, LLC, and an ABET Program Evaluator. She is passionate about engineering education, evidence-based teaching, and creating opportunities for student success in and out of the classroom. Roberts teaches classes that range from first-year courses in engineering graphics and digital fabrication to graduate courses focused on sustainable design. She received her B.S. in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (2003), her M.S. in Biomechanics & Movement Science (2004) from the University of Delaware and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (2014) from New York University. She rides her *very cool* electric cargo bike to work, usually with her 9 year old on the back.
Infusing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into Engineering Curricula and Culture
In October 2022, Penn State hosted a summit for Big 10+ institutions and others with strong engineering programs. The purpose was to prepare for the upcoming changes to ABET criteria relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Teams of individuals from each institution came together to develop plans for responding to the ABET changes. This panel will provide an overview of the Big10++ Summit and share key takeaways from several participants. Clemson University and UC Berkeley will each share strategies for faculty development, including approaches for inclusion of DEI into annual evaluation, promotion, tenure, merit raise, and other evaluative processes for meeting the ABET criteria. UC Berkeley will also describe a new certificate, Empowering Engineers for Positive Change (EMPOWER). UW Madison will share strategies more effective teaching and assessment of both the teamwork and ethics outcomes through use of cases infused with identity/DEI challenges.
In October 2022, Penn State hosted a summit for Big 10+ institutions and others with strong engineering programs. The purpose was to prepare for the upcoming changes to ABET criteria relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Teams of individuals from each institution came together...
Laura Grossenbacher
Director of Undergraduate Program Review, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLaura Grossenbacher is Director of Undergraduate Program Review and Director of the Technical Communication Program in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, and has been teaching courses in engineering communication and ethics for over 20 years. Since 2012, she has developed ethics cases to use with a variety of different constituents, including engineers working for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, American Transmission Company, Madison Gas and Electric, WE Energies, Realtime Utility, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and the American Water Resources Administration; she has also taught ethics workshops for the Wisconsin Structural Engineering Code Refresher Annual Conference, the Wisconsin Concrete Pavement Association and the Wisconsin Society for Landscape Architects, among others.
Grossenbacher's ethics workshops are designed to engage engineers in discussing and applying codes of ethics, moral theory and behavioral science to practical cases in different engineering disciplines. She has taught applied engineering ethics to over 4,500 engineers across the state of Wisconsin. Beyond her work with practicing engineers, she teaches online ethics courses for graduate students as well as an undergraduate ethics course designed for Geological Engineering students. She is a member of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE), the current co-chair of the Online Ethics Center Community of Practice in Teaching Engineering Ethics.
Sarah Zappe
Assistant Dean, Teaching and Learning, Pennsylvania State UniversityDr. Sarah Zappe is an educational psychologist specializing in engineering and entrepreneurship education. She holds the position of Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning and the Director of the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education at Penn State. Zappe formerly held the position as deputy editor for the Journal of Engineering Education and is past Division Chair for the Educational Research and Methods (ERM) Division of ASEE. She serves on advisory boards for multiple NSF-funded projects and is on several task forces with ASEE. Her research interests include the integration of engineering and the arts, creativity, failure in student entrepreneurial teams and faculty development.
Karen High
Professor, Department of Engineering & Science Education, Clemson UniversityDr. Karen High has been active in faculty development for over 32 years. She currently is a professor in the Engineering Science and Education Department (ESED) at Clemson University, which develops future faculty through its Ph.D. and certificate programs. Prior to this, High was a professor in chemical engineering for 24 years at Oklahoma State University pursuing technical and educational research. She still conducts research on STEM Faculty Development (karenhighed.org) and is a co-editor of the recently published handbook on STEM Faculty Development. High also erved as an ABET PEV for Chemical and General Engineering Programs. She is also engaged with the M360 Mentoring Initiative.
Fatima Alleyne
Director, Community Engagement & Inclusive Practices, University of California, BerkleyFatima Alleyne, Ph.D., is a professionally trained engineer and transformational leader who serves as the director of Community Engagement and Inclusive Practices in the College of Engineering (CoE) at the University of California, Berkeley. She brings her passion and love for STEM and education into her work to develop programs that promote equity, foster a positive, inclusive culture and increase access and opportunities to those who have historically been underrepresented in STEM.
As director, Alleyne develops, leads, executes and evaluates professional trainings and workshops for faculty to increase their knowledge and awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). A core component of her work, Alleyne engages diverse members of the campus community on the topic of DEI and, particularly faculty, on how to integrate these principles into research, teaching, service, faculty recruitment and retention and holistic graduate admissions. Such programs include the Faculty Engagement Fund, Inclusive Excellence Orientation for Faculty, Inclusive Excellence Library Collection, and Empowering Engineers for Positive Change (EMPOWER) Certificate Program, which have made a significant impact in the College and beyond.
Alleyne also led a strategic planning process to guide programs and priorities to advance DEI in the College. The diversity plan she authored led to CoE’s recognition with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Bronze Exemplar Award, the highest honor bestowed upon an institution. Her work has been lauded by UC Berkeley’s chancellor with recognition as a Chancellor's Outstanding Staff Award recipient as well as an Equity Champion Award recipient by Advising and Student Services in 2022.
Prior to this role, Alleyne served as the director of CoE faculty engagement, consultant for the Center for Restorative Solutions, research general engineer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and education and outreach coordinator at an NSF-funded research center and research specialist, both at the University of California, Berkeley. Her commitment and passion for STEM education has led to her service on a range of committees on campus and in her community, including the UC-wide Next Opportunity at Work (NOW) Conference, development of STEM programs in K-12 schools, and service as an elected official on the Contra Costa County Board of Education.
Alleyne earned her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in materials science and engineering from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in chemistry from the City University of New York, Hunter College. She also holds a Certificate in Project Management from UC Extension and is in pursuit of a Strategic Management Certificate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Certificate in Higher Education and Student Affairs from UC Berkeley Extension.
Plenary Panel on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability are essential elements in building a more resilient world. In this panel session, "Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability as Key Drivers for Building a More Resilient World," ABET Claire L. Felbinger Award recipients will share their experiences and insights on the benefits of promoting Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability particularly in the face of global crises and challenges. The session aims to highlight the importance of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability as a crucial element of resilience. By fostering a deeper understanding of the role of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability, this session will provide insights for building a stronger, more resilient, and sustainable future.
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability are essential elements in building a more resilient world. In this panel session, “Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability as Key Drivers for Building a More Resilient World,” ABET Claire L. Felbinger Award recipients will share their experiences and...
Ignatios Vakalis
Professor of Computer Science, Cuesta Community CollegeIgnatios Vakalis was born on the island of Lesvos, Greece. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in Physics, from the Univ. of Patras, a M.Sc. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Math from Western Michigan University. From 1992-2006, Vakalis served as professor of math and computer science at Capital University - Ohio. He served as chair of three international conferences in the area of: “Teaching of Undergraduate Mathematics.” Vakalis has also served as chair of the Department of Computer Science- Software Engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (2006-2017) in addition to his duties as a professor of the department (2006-2021). He has received numerous awards including: Provost’s Leadership Award for Partnership in Philanthropy (2014) and ABET's Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity and Inclusion (2018).
Renetta Tull
Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, University of California DavisDr. Renetta Garrison Tull is the University of California Davis' inaugural Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), which houses Academic Diversity, the Office of Campus Community Relations, four centers, and Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (DEI within the medical school, nursing school and health center). She also serves on the Chief Diversity Officers Council for the University of California, and has several programs and boards within her portfolio including HSI initiatives, the Police Accountability Board, Diversity and Inclusion Education and strategic planning, four centers and more.
Tull formerly served as Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Development and later, Associate Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives at UMBC. She had a detail within the University System of Maryland’s headquarters (for 12 institutions), serving as the Director for Pipeline Professional Development Programs, and she has been either Co-PI or PI on National Science Foundation grants within the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), ADVANCE and Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) programs. At UC Davis, she is PI of the PROMISE Engineering Institute, a collaboration between UC Davis and UMBC, with connections to engineering schools within the UC, and engineering schools in Maryland (UM College Park, Morgan State and Johns Hopkins) to form an engineering “East-West” collaboration. Her degrees in electrical engineering and speech science are from Howard University and Northwestern University. She was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, and participates in faculty activities as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Davis, and a faculty affiliate in the Interdepartmental Program on Human Rights Studies.
An international speaker on global diversity in STEM, Tull was a Global Engineering Deans Council/Airbus Diversity Award Finalist and has received the ABET Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity and Inclusion and the Student Platform for Engineering Education Development Global Mentoring Award. She has been involved with Puerto Rico’s ADVANCE Hispanic Women in STEM, the Latin and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions, UNESCO, the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) community, and her research interests in Humanitarian Engineering continue through sharing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is an author of a chapter of Rising to the Top and was part of the consensus committees for the National Academies’ “Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic STEMM,” and “The Science of Effective Mentoring in STEMM."
Yvette E. Pearson
Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, University of Texas at DallasDr. Yvette E. Pearson is Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her university-based and consulting efforts have led to over $40M in funding to support the success of students from minoritized and marginalized identities. A Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), her work has led to changes in policies and practices to advance equity and inclusion in ASCE, ABET and other global organizations. As past chair of ASCE’s Formal Engineering Education Committee, Pearson and her team led the organization’s charge of educating programs on strategies for the inclusion of principles of sustainability in engineering curricula, in large part by promoting a transdisciplinary, convergent approach to attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For the past two years, she has served on the Civil Engineering Program Criteria Task Committee, where she helped develop the currently proposed CE criteria changes.
Pearson’s awards and honors include ASCE’s Professional Practice Ethics & Leadership Award, ABET’s Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity & Inclusion, the Society of Women Engineers Distinguished Engineering Educator Award, and ASCE’s President’s Medal. She is a registered Professional Engineer and Commissioner on ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission. Her podcast, Engineering Change, has audiences in over 80 countries.
Richard Olawoyin
Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Oakland UniversityRichard Olawoyin, associate professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Oakland University (OU) and U.S. Fulbright Scholar. He is a professional engineer (P.E.) with multidisciplinary research interests in stochastic system optimization and functional system safety analysis. He received his PhD in Energy Engineering from Penn. State University. He has served as the faculty adviser for NSBE at OU since 2014. He is the Chair of the ABET Inclusion Diversity and Equity Advisory (IDEA) Council. He has received multiple awards including the ASSP Charles V. Culbertson Outstanding Award in 2019 and 2022, and the 2023 Fulbright Scholarship for teaching and research.
Closing Plenary Panel
Exploring the points and insights set out the previous day, the closing plenary of the 2023 ABET Symposium will feature a panel discussion about the need for resilience and the opportunities that current and future problem solvers face. Led by Bill Wepfer, 2021-2022 ABET President, panelists representing Peace Engineering at University of Mexico, Engineering for One Planet, Engineering Change Lab, The Lemelson Foundation and Engineers Without Borders will offer their view of the future and answer questions from the audience.
Exploring the points and insights set out the previous day, the closing plenary of the 2023 ABET Symposium will feature a panel discussion about the need for resilience and the opportunities that current and future problem solvers face. Led by Bill Wepfer, 2021-2022 ABET President,...
Ramiro Jordan
Associate Dean of Engineering for Global Initiatives, University of New MexicoDr. Ramiro Jordan is a scientist, innovator, educator and entrepreneur. He is a member of the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of New Mexico. Currently, he is the Associate Dean of Engineering for Global Initiatives. His research activities include sustainability, Peace Engineering, smart grids, cognitive radio, multidimensional signal processing, and software development. He is the founder of the Ibero-American Consortium for Science and Technology Education (ISTEC), December 1990.He was the president of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), Nov. 2018-2020. He is a founding member of the Peace Engineering Consortium, outcome of the first global conference on Peace Engineering, Nov. 2018, Albuquerque, NM.
Mike McMeekin
President & Executive Director, Engineering Change Lab USAMike McMeekin is one of the founders of Engineering Change Lab-USA (ECL), a non-profit focused on the future of engineering and fostering change in engineering that will increase its contributions in support of a more resilient society. He became ECL’s first President/Executive Director in 2019. McMeekin served as President of Lamp Rynearson, an engineering, landscape architecture and surveying firm headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, from 1997-2017. Following his tenure as President, he served as Chairman of the Board and Senior Advisor from 2017-2021. He has over 45 years of engineering experience and has played a leadership role in numerous signature projects in the Omaha area.
McMeekin is a graduate of the American Council of Engineering Companies’ Senior Executives Institute, an advanced management, leadership and public policy training program for current and emerging leaders of engineering and architectural firms.
William Wepfer
2021-2022 President, ABETWilliam Wepfer served as the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. School Chair and Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech from 2008 to 2018. Wepfer’s research covered the areas of thermal systems, heat transfer and thermodynamics. Wepfer is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), ABET and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
He was a member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET for 12 years and served as Chair of the EAC during the 2014-15 accreditation cycle. Wepfer served on the Board of Governors of ASME (2016-19) and represents ASME on the ABET Board of Delegates. He has served departmental advisory boards at Pennsylvania State University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University. After 38 years of service, Wepfer retired from Georgia Tech on April 1, 2018, and holds the title of Professor Emeritus. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Lynne.
Duyen Nguyen
Council of Regional Presidents Co-Chair, Engineers Without Borders USADuyen Nguyen is the co-chair of Engineers Without Borders USA's (EWB-USA) Council of Regional Presidents where she manages a network of regional representatives, state representatives and chapter presidents. She has extensive international and domestic community engineering project/impact experience.
Nguyen has been with EWB-USA since 2010 when she joined as Chapter President of the Louisiana State University Student Chapter. Since then, she has served in many leadership roles and partnered with communities in The Gambia, Honduras, Cameroon and Guatemala. She also serves as the Chapter President of the Los Angeles Professional Chapter and Project Lead for a program in Guatemala that supplies a community of over 1000 people with potable water.
Cindy Anderson
Consultant, Founder & CEO, Alula Consulting; Consultant, Engineering for One Planet, The Lemelson FoundationCindy Anderson (she/her/hers) is the founder and CEO of Alula Consulting and Consultant, Engineering for One Planet, The Lemelson Foundation. Anderson specializes in innovative sustainability- and online-focused research and curriculum projects for academic institutions, non-profits, government, and corporations. She has taught thousands of people through courses and workshops, around the world and online, in the fields of biology, sustainability, and biomimicry. She is honored to be a collaborative partner on the Engineering for One Planet initiative since its inception, co-author of the EOP Framework and new framework integration guides, and active EOP Network Member.
Anderson holds a M.S. from Oregon State University, a MEd from Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), a BSc in biology from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) and a graduate certificate in public health from the University of Montana.
How to Prepare for Your ABET Site Visit
Preparing for your ABET site visit can be challenging. This presentation offers insight into the visit process which is one of the most important events in the accreditation cycle. The presentation focuses on what an institution can do to prepare for the visit in order to make the process as smooth as possible. Both virtual and on-site visits are covered.
Preparing for your ABET site visit can be challenging. This presentation offers insight into the visit process which is one of the most important events in the accreditation cycle. The presentation focuses on what an institution can do to prepare for the visit in order...
Rebecca Popeck
Survey Project Manager, SPACECO, Inc.Rebecca Popeck is a licensed Land Surveyor at Rosemont based SPACECO, Inc., a civil engineering, land surveying and consulting firm. Popeck studied Land Survey Engineering and Civil Engineering at Purdue University’s West Lafayette Campus earning bachelor’s degrees in both disciplines. She has been a licensed Illinois Land Surveyor since 2005. Popeck has spent almost 20 years performing surveys and providing surveying services in the greater Chicagoland area. Her specialties include development work in residential, commercial and industrial sectors with an increased focus on projects within the limits of the City of Chicago. She joined ABET in 2006 as a Program Evaluator supporting her member society of National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS). NSPS is a member of three accreditation commissions including ANSAC, EAC and ETAC. She has had the pleasure of serving as a PEV for both ETAC and ANSAC visits early in her ABET career. In 2014, Popeck became a commissioner/team chair for the Applied and Natural Science Commission. In 2017, she further progressed through the ranks to join ANSAC’s executive committee. During the 2019-2020 accreditation cycle, Popeck was a team chair for her first international visit to Krishnan Kovil, Tamil Nadu, India.
Michael Oudshoorn
Dean of the Webb School of Engineering, High Point UniversityDr. Michael Oudshoorn, Founding Dean of the School of Engineering at High Point University, graduated from the University of Adelaide, Australia, with a B.S. in 1983 and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1992, also from the University of Adelaide. Between 1984 and 2003 he was a faculty member in Computer Science at the University of Adelaide and served as the Associate Dean (International) for the College of Engineering, Mathematical and Computer Sciences. In 2003, he relocated to the U.S. and served as a faculty member, department chair or dean at several universities before joining High Point University in July 2018. Oudshoorn’s primary research interests are in distributed systems and autonomic systems. Oudshoorn is a member of the ASEE, IEEE and a Senior Member of the ACM. He is also an active member of ABET. He is a commissioner on the Computing Accreditation Commission and currently serves as a member of the executive committee.
Since joining High Point University staff, Oudshoorn has worked with the computer science faculty to revise the curriculum with a goal to seek ABET accreditation in the future. He has designed the Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs and secured approval from SACS for the university to offer these new programs. The Engineering programs commenced in August 2019.
Carol Schulte
Professor (retired), McNeese State UniversityCarol Schulte is retired from McNeese State University, where she taught courses in process plant technology, a chemical engineering technology program. She earned her BSChE degree at Wayne State University in Detroit. Schulte also has an M.S. in chemistry and an M.E.M. from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Also at Lamar, she received her DE in industrial engineering. She has worked in industry for companies such as DuPont, PPG and Condea Vista. Schulte is currently a member of the AIChE Education and Accreditation Committee and leads the Engineering Technology Education Subcommittee. She is an ETAC evaluator for AIChE and IISE and has been an ETAC Commissioner representing AIChE. She is currently a member of the ETAC Executive Committee. She has served as chair of the ETAC Quality Committee and the ETAC Training Committee. She now serves as the ETAC Chair.
Chris Taylor
Professor and EECS Vice Chair, Milwaukee School of EngineeringChris Taylor is Professor and Vice Chair of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1998. Taylor is a member of the CSAB board and the CSAB liaison to the IEEE CEAA. He has served as a EAC evaluator for CSAB and IEEE and has been an EAC Commissioner. He served as chair of the EAC Training Committee and has served on the EAC Executive Committee.
Online and Hybrid Programs: Program Characteristics and Evaluation Approaches
ABET has been visiting entirely online programs for several years. The Criteria remain the same whether the program is online or in-person; however, 100% of the online program visits have some unique characteristics. Currently, 27 institutions have a total of 37 such programs with ABET accreditation representing all four commissions. The panel members will discuss characteristics of a program and visits to 100% online programs from both a program and a visit team perspective. To conclude, we will discuss “what-ifs” for programs that are between 50% and 99% online AND compare those visits to Virtual Visits of the upcoming accreditation cycle.
ABET has been visiting entirely online programs for several years. The Criteria remain the same whether the program is online or in-person; however, 100% of the online program visits have some unique characteristics. Currently, 27 institutions have a total of 37 such programs with ABET...
Barbara Price
Professor Emerita, Quantitative Analysis, Georgia Southern UniversityBarbara Price received her B.S. degree in mathematics from Grove City College and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in statistics from Virginia Tech. Her academic career began at New River Community College before accepting positions at other schools including: Radford University, Mississippi State University, Lynchburg College, Winthrop University and Georgia Southern University. At Georgia Southern, Price served as Department Chair in the College of Business Administration, Founding Director of the School of Information Technology, Professor of Quantitative Analysis and Interim Associate Vice President for Continuing Education. She served as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. She was recognized as a Fellow of CSAB and a Fellow of ABET in 2013.
Price’s ABET service includes her current role as Secretary of the ABET Board of Directors, past member of the Computing Area Delegation and the Board of Delegates, Lead/Support Facilitator for PEVC Training, member of the Accreditation Council Training Committee and CAC Chair for the 2012-2013 cycle.
Stephen Phillips
Professor of Electrical Engineering/Director, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State UniversityStephen Phillips serves as Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. Phillips received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. From 1988 to 2002, he served on the faculty of the Case School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. In 2002, he joined the faculty of Arizona State University as Professor of Electrical Engineering. Phillips was appointed electrical engineering department chair in 2005 and Director of the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering in 2009. He has served as an ABET Program Evaluator and as a member of the board of directors of ABET where he is currently director of the Engineering Area Delegation. Phillips is a professional engineer registered in the state of Ohio. He has served as IEEE Vice President for Educational Activities. His research includes applications of systems and control, microfabrication on novel substrates and non-traditional delivery and assessment of accredited engineering degree programs.
Ask Me Anything: Accreditation Discussion Den
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Accreditation Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all accreditation-related questions and our experts will answer them. ABET Chief Accreditation Officer Joe Sussman and Senior Director of Accreditation Operations Jane Emmet will lead the conversation.
Each Discussion Den brings ABET thought leaders together with Symposium attendees for an informal and enlightening discussion on a specific topic. These are organic conversations. There is no agenda or PowerPoint presentation. The audience’s questions and experiences build an inquisitive conversation that the group leaders guide with their insight and expertise.
Discussion Dens allow attendees to learn from the group leaders as well as from the questions and experiences of their peers.
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Accreditation Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all accreditation-related questions and our experts will answer them. ABET Chief Accreditation Officer Joe Sussman and Senior Director of Accreditation Operations Jane Emmet will lead the conversation. Each Discussion...
Joe Sussman
Chief Accreditation Officer and Chief Information Officer, ABETAs chief accreditation officer and chief information officer since 2011, Joe Sussman leads ABET’s global accreditation operations, collaborating with the organization’s volunteer leadership in both tactical execution and strategic development of ABET’s accreditation practice. Previously, he spent 26 years as an engineering leader and senior business executive at Bayer AG, leading many of the company’s quality, manufacturing, and IT efforts. After retiring from Bayer he became an industry specialist at Deloitte Consulting, where he worked with many global clients. Before joining the ABET staff, he served for 24 years in nearly every volunteer capacity, including as program evaluator for mechanical engineering programs, chair of the Engineering Accreditation Commission, representative director from ASME on the ABET Board of Directors, and president (2008–2009). He was inducted as an ABET fellow in 2002 after having played a pivotal role in implementing the ground-breaking Engineering Criteria 2000. In 2011 he was elected an ASME fellow for his contributions to quality in engineering education, and in 2015 he received the Linton E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the technical disciplines through his work in accreditation. He earned his baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
Jane Emmet
Senior Director, Accreditation Operations, ABETJane Emmet has been responsible for the management and administration of ABET’s accreditation policies and procedures and the overall operations of ABET’s accreditation processes since November, 2015. She joined ABET in January of 2014 as the Training Manager responsible for the training of the over 2,000 volunteer professionals who serve ABET. Her background, prior to joining ABET, includes directing and managing training and leadership development programs at professional service organizations, energy companies and developing education programs for history museums. Jane holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in History/Education and a master’s degree in Museum Education from The George Washington University. She also holds a Graduate Certificate from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in Instructional Systems Design.
The Role of Professional Societies in Promoting DEI
The role of professional societies in promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has become increasingly important in building a more resilient world. Professional societies have the potential to be influential change agents and can play a significant role in advancing DEI across different industries and sectors. The panelists will share their experiences and insights on how professional societies can leverage their influence and networks to promote DEI and drive meaningful change. In this panel session, we will explore the role of professional societies in advancing DEI, highlighting successful strategies and best practices. The session aims to inspire and equip attendees with the knowledge and tools necessary to champion DEI in their respective fields and contribute to building a more diverse, equitable, inclusive and resilient world.
The role of professional societies in promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has become increasingly important in building a more resilient world. Professional societies have the potential to be influential change agents and can play a significant role in advancing DEI across different industries and...
Sharon B. DeVivo
President and Chief Executive Officer, Vaughn CollegeDr. Sharon B. DeVivo has been with Vaughn College since 1996 and was named first woman president in 2014. She received her bachelor’s degree in communications from the State University of New York at Albany, a master’s in public communications from Fordham University and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2020, DeVivo was appointed to serve as the chair of the Youth Access to American Aviation Jobs Task Force by the US Secretary of Transportation. She also serves on the board for Civil Air Patrol, Council for Higher Education Accreditation, The Wings Club Foundation, Cradle of Aviation Museum, the Greater New York Councils Boy Scouts of America, Queens Advisory Board for Scouting BSA, International Aviation Women’s Association Advisory Board, JFK International Airport Chamber of Commerce. DeVivo also serves as a liaison to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Women in Engineering Committee in addition to the Institute’s Pre-University Education Coordination Committee and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.
Dalma Novak
VP of Engineering, Octane WirelessDr. Dalma Novak is VP of Engineering at Octane Wireless, a technology company located in Maryland developing advanced RF-over-fiber and antenna products. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and has over 30 years of experience working in the fields of optical and wireless telecommunications. She has published more than 300 papers in these technical areas, including seven book chapters. Previously she held positions at The University of Melbourne, Dorsal Networks and Corvis Corporation. Novak received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1992 and in 2018 received the IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award. She is the current Chair of the IEEE TAB Committee on Diversity and Inclusion and was a member of the IEEE Board of Directors from 2021 to 2022.
Ashley Huderson
STEM and CS Equity Policy Fellow, Office of the Deputy Secretary of EducationAshley Huderson is a teacher, entrepreneur, researcher and STEM policy expert. She has published over 13 peer reviewed articles, including two book chapters on Urban STEM education and counter spaces for minority women in STEM and has been the recipient of several awards and honors.
Huderson previously served as the Director of Engineering Education and Outreach at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and was an American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science and Technology Policy (AAAS S&T) Fellow at the National Science Foundation. Currently, Dr. Huderson works in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Education as a STEM and CS Equity Policy Fellow. She is working to develop and implement a STEM and CS strategy that advances the Secretary’s vision for education in America and supports the strategic goals and priorities of the department.
Huderson is a native of New Orleans, LA, and completed her undergraduate training at Spelman College (2006), a certificate in Health Policy (2012) and doctoral work at Meharry Medical College (2013).
Lisa Black
Director, Cultural Belonging & Social Ethos, American Society of Civil EngineersDr. Lisa M. Black, is Director, Cultural Belonging & Social Ethos for the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2016, Black joined the staff of ASCE the nation’s oldest engineering society, representing more than 150,000 members. In her role as Director of Cultural Belonging & Social Ethos, she is responsible for developing, monitoring, and evaluating policies, programs, activities, and products aimed at advancing inclusion of people representing underrepresented identities in the profession. Through her work with ASCE’s board level committee, Members of Society Advancing an Inclusive Culture (MOSAIC), she provides leadership in all matters of diversity, equity and inclusion within the civil engineering community and implements policies and programs designed to advance awareness and recognition of the civil engineering profession, with a special emphasis on promoting civil engineering as an inclusive discipline.
Prior to joining ASCE, Black acquired nearly 20 years of experience in social work, policy, and leading strategic planning initiatives focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. These experiences encompassed administrative leadership, research, community engagement and project management that span pre-kindergarten through career workforce. In the preK-12 public education sector, she served as Special Assistant to the Superintendent for Race and Equity in Madison Wisconsin and held education leadership licenses in Wisconsin and Virginia.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from North Carolina State University and both graduate degrees, a Master of Science in Social Work and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Black enjoys spending time with her husband, brother Renny, their four adult children and chocolate lab, Odie.
Stephanie Harrington
Director, Constituent Relations, ABETStephanie Harrington has spent over 25 years in STEM education as an expert in academic and professional society environments. With a background as a structural engineer, she brings professional practice expertise to her roles in advancing education. In addition to working with STEM education programs at professional organizations, she been on faculty at the Catholic University of America and is currently an adjunct at Northern Virginia Community College. Harrington most recently served as the Director of Marketing and Development at the American Society for Engineering Education. She is currently the Director of Constituent Relations at ABET.
Harrington received her bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia and her master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Designing Questionnaires to Maximize Validity and Increase Response Rates
Developing a questionnaire to collect information from students, alumni, employers, internship supervisors and/or other constituents can be a daunting task. This session will provide principles and processes for the development of an effective questionnaire to gather needed data and improve response rates. It will also provide tips on survey design and development. Other topics included are the selection of the response audience, strategies to enhance the number of respondents, methodology for analysis and how the data can be aggregated and reported.
Developing a questionnaire to collect information from students, alumni, employers, internship supervisors and/or other constituents can be a daunting task. This session will provide principles and processes for the development of an effective questionnaire to gather needed data and improve response rates. It will also...
Gloria Rogers
Senior Adjunct Director, Professional Offerings, ABETGloria Rogers, Ph.D., is currently serving as a Senior Adjunct Director for Professional Offerings at ABET. She is also the Assessment and Data Analyst for Indiana State University’s Physician Assistant program and Senior Scholar Emerita for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association. She has been providing workshops, webinars, seminars and institutes for the development of continuous quality improvement of educational programs and institutional effectiveness related to strategic planning for over three decades. She has been an external evaluator for major science, math, engineering and technology initiatives and has served as Chair of two national advisory committees and been a member of numerous review panels for the National Science Foundation. She has served as a reviewer for the Fulbright Senior Scholars program and has been a special editor for two issues of the International Journal of Engineering Education.
Rogers has authored assessment‐related articles, given invited presentations at national and international conferences and facilitated workshops/seminars on over 80 campuses. In addition to her local and national involvement in assessment and educational reform, she has given invited presentations, consultations and workshops in 31 countries including a Fulbright Senior Scholar assignment in Lima, Peru. In 2008, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education for her contributions to the engineering education profession.
Relevancy: The Fifth ‘R’ of Resilience in Cybersecurity Curricula
Relevant cybersecurity curricula is a critical component of cybersecurity resilience. ‘Relevant’ cybersecurity curriculum a) is pedagogically and technically correct b) provides learning experiences directly applicable to the learners’ interests, aspirations, and cultural experiences, c) uses real-world problems and contexts, and d) is resilient against rapidly advancing threats (i.e., up-to-date). While much attention has been paid to developing cybersecurity curriculum, a formal process for keeping curriculum relevant has not been explored. This presentation will outline a new model for reviewing, assessing and maintaining curriculum relevance. We will demonstrate a multi-phase "relevancy process" which includes time-stamping, triaging, technical review, editorial review and mapping to curricular standards. We will share lessons learned from implementing a cybersecurity curriculum relevance review for over two hundred publicly available cybersecurity learning modules.
Relevant cybersecurity curricula is a critical component of cybersecurity resilience. ‘Relevant’ cybersecurity curriculum a) is pedagogically and technically correct b) provides learning experiences directly applicable to the learners’ interests, aspirations, and cultural experiences, c) uses real-world problems and contexts, and d) is resilient against rapidly...
Paige Zaleppa
Director of Operations, SecurEd Inc.Paige Zaleppa is the Director of Operations at SecurEd Inc. where she coordinates the software development and content curation processes for two cybersecurity education products. She has worked in cybersecurity education for 4 years as a software developer and product manager. Zaleppa is passionate about cyber education and is an adjunct professor at Towson University. She received her Bachelor’s in Information Systems and Master’s in Computer Science from Towson University.
Blair Thomas
Quality Advocate, SecurEd Inc.Blair Thomas is a Quality Advocate at SecurEd Inc. where she helps curate curriculum and ensure the curriculum is relevant. She is currently an undergraduate student at Towson University majoring in Information Systems with a track in interface design, projected to graduate in Spring of 2023. Thomas is passionate about technology and takes a special interest in UX design and project management. In her free time, Thomas enjoys reading, writing, playing video games, listening to music and baking.
Sidd Kaza
Associate Provost for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies, Towson UniversitySidd Kaza is the Associate Provost for Research at Towson University. His interests lie in cybersecurity, data mining and application development. He is a principal investigator on several cybersecurity projects, including the University's Cyber4All. He was on the ACM/IEEE/AIS/IFIP Joint Global Task Force on Cybersecurity Education that produced the first four-year cybersecurity curricular guidelines. Kaza is Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of SecurEd, a not-for-profit startup organization focused on helping academic institutions build a cyber-ready workforce. One of SecurEd’s premier products is CLARK, which provides free cybersecurity curricula and resources across K-12.
Blair Taylor
Director, Center for Interdisciplinary and Innovation Cybersecurity (Cyber4All)Dr. Blair Taylor is Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary and Innovation Cybersecurity (Cyber4All) at Towson University. She is a national expert in cybersecurity education and worked with NSA’s College of Cyber as a Subject Matter Expert on long-term strategies to increase the pipeline of qualified students and build the nations’ cyber workforce. Her projects include Security Injections @ Towson, which provides security modules for integrating security across the curriculum and is a national model for teaching secure coding to introductory programming students; CLARK, a library of over 1000 free cybersecurity curriculum resources, and SPLASH, which offers Secure Programming Logic for college credit to high school girls.
An Example of an Effective Program Assessment and Evaluation Process
Program faculty and administrators often struggle over how to develop and implement effective assessment and evaluation processes that conform to the ABET criteria. Concerns of excessive time, effort and lack of participation are often raised. The purpose of this session is to present an example of an assessment and evaluation process that works for and meets the needs of the engineering and computer science programs at Florida Tech. The session is designed to give participants potentially new ideas on how to create and/or improve their own processes, and to discuss how participants might adapt it or any of its elements to their own programs and needs without being overly burdensome on faculty. Each element of the process will be discussed, and potential pitfalls that have been identified and how they were addressed will also be noted, as will how the processes are reviewed with an eye towards improvement.
Program faculty and administrators often struggle over how to develop and implement effective assessment and evaluation processes that conform to the ABET criteria. Concerns of excessive time, effort and lack of participation are often raised. The purpose of this session is to present an example...
Mark Archambault
Assistant Dean of Academics for the College of Engineering and Science and Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering and Science, Florida Institute of TechnologyMark Archambault received his B.S. and M.S. in aerospace engineering from Florida Tech in 1992 and 1993, respectively. He then joined the Air Force Research Laboratory as a research scientist, and earned his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1999. In 2004, he joined the faculty of the aerospace engineering program at Florida Tech where he now holds the rank of Associate Professor. Archambault was appointed Assistant Dean for Academics for the College of Engineering and Science in 2017. In 2013, Archambault became an ABET PEV for aerospace engineering programs, an EAC commissioner and team chair in 2017 and now serves on the EAC ExCom. His professional memberships include AIAA, ASEE and ILASS.
Using the FE Exam for Effective Outcomes Assessment
This session highlights best practices in outcomes assessment using the NCEES Subject Matter Reports to provide participants with information about the strengths and weaknesses of students in a program. The presentation will specifically focus on using the FE results as one tool in assessing the ABET student outcomes. Attend and learn more about how the FE exam can be an effective tool for your program.
This session highlights best practices in outcomes assessment using the NCEES Subject Matter Reports to provide participants with information about the strengths and weaknesses of students in a program. The presentation will specifically focus on using the FE results as one tool in assessing the...
Grant Crawford
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Quinnipiac UniversityGrant Crawford, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASEE, is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. He has served on the NCEES FE exam committee since 2005 and is an active member of the engineering education community, having served on the ASEE Board of Directors three times. He has been involved in and led ABET accreditation and assessment at the program level for over 18 years. He is an EAC PEV and former ETAC Commissioner for ABET.
David Whitman
Professor Emeritus, University of WyomingDavid L. Whitman, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASEE, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wyoming. He is a past president of NCEES, an emeritus member of the Wyoming State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors, and the current ABET Treasurer on the Board of Directors. He has been involved with various NCEES committees and has been part of the FE exam preparation since 2001.
Criterion 4: Continuous Improvement Best Practices
This session is designed as a highly interactive, yet informal and relaxed, conversation between ABET Experts and those Symposium attendees wanting to learn more about the assessment, evaluation, and continuous improvement processes associated with Criterion 4. Case studies involving common Criterion 4 misconceptions will be discussed, and previously developed materials on this topic will be made available. The ABET Experts hosting this session are also interested in hearing your Criterion 4 related questions, issues, and concerns for use as feedback to help improve our training materials.
This session is designed as a highly interactive, yet informal and relaxed, conversation between ABET Experts and those Symposium attendees wanting to learn more about the assessment, evaluation, and continuous improvement processes associated with Criterion 4. Case studies involving common Criterion 4 misconceptions will be...
Jenny Amos
Teaching Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignJennifer “Jenny” Amos, Ph.D., joined the Bioengineering Department at the University of Illinois in 2009 and is currently a Teaching Professor in Bioengineering with affiliations in Educational Psychology, Healthcare Systems Engineering and Medicine. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of South Carolina. She is an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Board of Director Member, two-time Fulbright Specialist in engineering education and has won multiple awards and recognitions for her teaching and scholarship of teaching. Outside of BMES, she has also worked to revolutionize the future of graduate medical education serving as a founding member of the new Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, a first-of-its-kind engineering-driven college of medicine. Amos is part of the Illinois NSF RED (Revolutionizing Engineering & Computer Science Departments) research team leading efforts to innovate assessment practices for engineering toward producing more holistic engineers. Amos has a decade’s worth of experience leading curriculum reform implementing robust assessment strategies at multiple institutions. Amos has served as an ABET PEV for BMES since 2012 and a commissioner for the Engineering Accreditation Commission at ABET from 2018 until 2021. She is 2011 IDEAL Scholar graduate and has been leading program assessment workshops since 2012.
John Estell
Professor of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio Northern UniversityJohn K. Estell, Ph.D., is the Reichelderfer Endowed Chair and Professor of Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Ohio Northern University. He is an ABET Fellow, a 10-year ABET Commissioner, and an Accreditation Council Training Committee member; he previously was an CAC Executive Committee Member, a CAC Editor, and CAC Training Committee Co-Chair. He is also an ASEE Fellow and an ASEE Vice President. Estell has received multiple ASEE awards for both his scholarship on engineering education pedagogy and his service to the Society. His research includes streamlining program outcomes assessment processes, including developing the well-known FCAR methodology and applying entrepreneurial mindset approaches to engineering design pedagogy.
Ask Me Anything: Assessment Discussion Den
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Assessment Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all assessment-related questions and our experts will answer them.
Each Discussion Den brings ABET thought leaders together with Symposium attendees for an informal and enlightening discussion on a specific topic. These are organic conversations. There is no agenda or PowerPoint presentation. The audience’s questions and experiences build an inquisitive conversation that the group leaders guide with their insight and expertise.
Discussion Dens allow attendees to learn from the group leaders as well as from the questions and experiences of their peers.
In our Ask Me Anything (#AMA): Assessment Discussion Den, attendees are invited to ask any and all assessment-related questions and our experts will answer them. Each Discussion Den brings ABET thought leaders together with Symposium attendees for an informal and enlightening discussion on a specific...
Daina Briedis
Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment, Michigan State UniversityDaina M. Briedis, Ph.D., is currently an Adjunct Director of Professional Offerings at ABET. She also serves as Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment in the College of Engineering at Michigan State University and is a faculty member and ABET Coordinator in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Over the past 32 years, Briedis has served ABET as a program evaluator for AIChE, a team chair and member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), the first chair of the EAC Training and Materials Development Committee and an Executive Committee member of the EAC. She was a program evaluator on one of the very first “EC2000” visits and subsequently chaired several new criteria visits. Briedis has been an AIChE Representative Director on the ABET Board of Directors and has been involved in the design teams for the new program evaluator and train-the-trainers training materials. She is a lead facilitator for the program evaluator training sessions. She also consults in the area of accreditation and assessment and evaluation and serves on the Board of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). She was elected a Fellow of ABET in 2007, a Fellow of the AIChE in 2011 and a Fellow of ASEE in 2015. She is an ABET Senior IDEAL Scholar.
Gloria Rogers
Senior Adjunct Director, Professional Offerings, ABETGloria Rogers, Ph.D., is currently serving as a Senior Adjunct Director for Professional Offerings at ABET. She is also the Assessment and Data Analyst for Indiana State University’s Physician Assistant program and Senior Scholar Emerita for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association. She has been providing workshops, webinars, seminars and institutes for the development of continuous quality improvement of educational programs and institutional effectiveness related to strategic planning for over three decades. She has been an external evaluator for major science, math, engineering and technology initiatives and has served as Chair of two national advisory committees and been a member of numerous review panels for the National Science Foundation. She has served as a reviewer for the Fulbright Senior Scholars program and has been a special editor for two issues of the International Journal of Engineering Education.
Rogers has authored assessment‐related articles, given invited presentations at national and international conferences and facilitated workshops/seminars on over 80 campuses. In addition to her local and national involvement in assessment and educational reform, she has given invited presentations, consultations and workshops in 31 countries including a Fulbright Senior Scholar assignment in Lima, Peru. In 2008, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education for her contributions to the engineering education profession.
Supplemental Materials for Site Visits
This presentation will provide guidance on supplemental materials for programs preparing for an upcoming accreditation visit, whether virtual or in-person. We will review the scope of materials a program needs to provide evidence to show compliance with the relevant criteria as well as options for organizing and providing materials. Our presentation focuses on those aspects of supplemental materials common to all ABET commissions. Commission-specific issues will be addressed via a follow up Question & Answer panel of commission representatives.
This presentation will provide guidance on supplemental materials for programs preparing for an upcoming accreditation visit, whether virtual or in-person. We will review the scope of materials a program needs to provide evidence to show compliance with the relevant criteria as well as options for...
Stan Thomas
Adjunct Director of Training, ABETDr. Stan Thomas, Ph.D. has nearly four decades of experience in computing and computing education. He currently serves as the Adjunct Director of Training for ABET. Thomas has been a faculty member of Wake Forest University since 1983, serving as department chair from 2004 to 2011, with visiting appointments at the United States Air Force Academy and Lahore University of Management Science, Lahore, Pakistan. His research interests are data management, data analysis and computer science education. Thomas earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in computer science from Vanderbilt University. He went on to spend four summers as research faculty at the NASA Kennedy Space Center and has worked as an expert witness and professional consultant with several organizations. Thomas has been an ABET program evaluator since 1996 and served as the chair of the Computing Accreditation Commission in 2014-15. He is also a Senior member of IEEE-CS and was identified as a CSAB Fellow in 2013 and an ABET Fellow in 2018.
Lizette Chevalier
Dean, Dr. Robert A. Savoie College of Engineering, University of New OrleansLizette Chevalier is currently serving as the Dean of the Dr. Robert A. Savoie College of Engineering at the University of New Orleans. Her B.S. degree is from Wayne State University and her M.S./Ph.D. degrees are from Michigan State University. She is a licensed professional engineer, a Fellow of ASCE and a Diplomat of Water Resources Engineering. She has held several academic administrative positions at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, all of which involved accreditation of programs as well as the institution. She has served as an ABET Program Evaluator, Team Chair, a member of the Executive Committee of the EAC and Chair of the EAC Continuous Improvement Committee.
Venancio Fuentes
Engineering Technologies/Engineering Science Department Chairperson, County College of MorrisVenancio “Venny” L. Fuentes, P.E. is currently the department chairperson for the Engineering Technologies/Engineering Science department at County College of Morris, a two-year college. His experience in ABET includes being on both sides of a visit, as a department chair and serving in the roles of program evaluator (PEV), team chair and statement editor. He has been an IEEE PEV since 2002. He served on the IEEE Committee on Engineering Technology Accreditation Activities (CETAA) prior to joining the ETAC as a commissioner. He is presently serving on the ETAC Executive Committee and chairs the ETAC Documents Committee. Prior to his teaching career, he was a systems engineer working on navigation systems for air, sea and space applications.
Randal Keller
Professor of Occupational Safety and Health and the Jesse D. Jones Endowed Professor of the College of Science, Murray State UniversityDr. Randal Keller has been a Murray State faculty member in the department of Occupational Safety and Health since 1996 and currently is the Jesse D. Jones Endowed Professor of the College of Science. He earned his Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees in toxicology from Utah State University and his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Eisenhower College. He did his post-doctoral training at the National Center for Toxicological Research in the Division of Biochemical Toxicology. Keller began his academic career in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences where he directed the Occupational and Environmental Health Program. He holds board certifications in the areas of toxicology, industrial hygiene and safety.
Keller has served on and led numerous national peer-review committees including those for the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. He served two terms on the Committee on Chemical Demilitarization for the Board on Army Science and Technology in the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council. He is currently Vice-Chair for the Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission of ABET. Keller received the 2019 Sandra Flynn Professor of the Year Award and has authored dozens of publications and presentations throughout his career. Keller created and coached the first Murray State Triathlon Club. In his spare time, he is an avid bicyclist and enjoys auditing German language courses.
Rajendra Raj
Professor of Computer Science, Rochester Institute of TechnologyRajendra K. Raj, Ph.D., is a Professor of Computer Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). His research and teaching interests lie at the nexus of data science, cybersecurity and distributed computing. He has been an ABET Program Evaluator and Team Chair for almost two decades. Raj currently is a member of the CAC Executive Committee, served as the 2021-22 CAC Chair and is a Fellow of CSAB and ABET. Previously, as co-chair of the Joint CAC/CSAB Criteria Committee, he led the effort to revise accreditation criteria for all computing programs and develop cybersecurity program criteria. Before RIT, Raj was a vice president in information technology at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he designed, developed and managed proprietary, private-cloud global-infrastructures to support a variety of financial applications. He has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Establishing Effective Periodic Review of Program Educational Objectives
Program Educational Objectives (PEOs), what graduates are expected to attain within a few years of graduation, are the cornerstone of student outcomes-based education. As program faculty, we spend multiple years equipping our students with the skills, knowledge and abilities based on these established PEOs. In this session, we will discuss practical ways to identify key stakeholders of your program, effectively solicit their input and learn the characteristics of a well-written PEO, inclusive of stakeholder feedback.
Program Educational Objectives (PEOs), what graduates are expected to attain within a few years of graduation, are the cornerstone of student outcomes-based education. As program faculty, we spend multiple years equipping our students with the skills, knowledge and abilities based on these established PEOs. In...
James Warnock
Professor and Founding Chair, School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, University of GeorgiaJames N. Warnock is a professor and the founding chair of the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. Before coming to Athens, Warnock served as the associate dean for academic affairs at Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering. He earned a doctorate in chemical engineering and a master’s in biochemical engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, before completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Warnock has conducted research in the areas of cell and gene biomanufacturing, bioreactor design, tissue engineering and cellular mechanobiology. He is actively involved in engineering education research and has earned international acclaim for his work using problem-based learning to enable students to develop professional skills. He currently serves as the director for Engineering Workforce Development for the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT).
Warnock is an adjunct director of professional offerings for ABET. In this role, he facilitates the planning, production and execution of the organization’s professional development programming and directs activities related to educational offerings and workshop-facilitator training.
Human Centered Engineering for a Sustainable World
Addressing key challenges facing the world demands practitioners in the emerging domain of Human Centered Engineering (HCE). This interdisciplinary and inclusive field of study spans human-centered design, engineering design, art and design, social sciences and business principles. It is concerned with interactive, iterative and creative problem solving and/or product and system development by building empathy with the users to better understand their needs. HCE education employs hands-on learning that inherently connects engineering theory, practice and social relevance. This is essential for educating engineers who will tackle sustainability in our changing world. We share example projects demonstrating this, in which students, educators and community stakeholders design learning tools for a toy library and use recycled material to produce windmills. The outcomes illustrate how Human Centered Engineering prepares practitioners who are ready for the global challenges we face.
Addressing key challenges facing the world demands practitioners in the emerging domain of Human Centered Engineering (HCE). This interdisciplinary and inclusive field of study spans human-centered design, engineering design, art and design, social sciences and business principles. It is concerned with interactive, iterative and creative...
Brock Craft
Associate Teaching Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering, University of WashingtonBrock Craft is an Associate Teaching Professor in the department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington and Director of the B.S. in HCDE. His areas of expertise include educational technology, data visualization and embedded systems.
Promoting Gender Diversity and Retention in Engineering
The need for diversity in engineering is more than just about equity and fairness; it is also about recognizing the value of diverse thoughts and how they can spur creative and innovative solutions for a complex and ever-changing world. This is also the motivation for ABET student outcome 5: “an ability to function effectively on a team…creat[ing] a collaborative and inclusive environment…”. Recognizing the need for a diverse engineering workforce appeals us not only to include, but to retain, diversity along the entire educational path. Despite the increasing efforts to keep young women interested in STEM before college, once there, a sizeable number of them will still end up leaving engineering majors for non-STEM related fields. As such, it is critical that efforts continue well into college to help maintain and foster inclusive environments which encourage the retention of women, especially in historically poorly diverse STEM fields, such as mechanical engineering. This session will interactively discuss a variety of possible approaches for the retention of women in engineering and explore the outcomes and impact of those programs.
The need for diversity in engineering is more than just about equity and fairness; it is also about recognizing the value of diverse thoughts and how they can spur creative and innovative solutions for a complex and ever-changing world. This is also the motivation for...
Christina Haden
Associate Teaching Professor, Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, Lehigh UniversityDr. Christina Viau Haden is a faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department at Lehigh University. Her research involves the material property prediction of additively manufactured metals. Besides her research, a passion for teaching has lead her to co-develop of a new interdisciplinary course at Lehigh at the intersection of art and engineering on the topic of Leonardo da Vinci's life works. Haden also leads her department's ABET accreditation process, enjoys being an ABET facilitator and serves as the chair of her department's undergraduate curriculum committee. Haden is also deeply committed to improving the retention rates of women in STEM. She runs a yearly three-day welcome event for incoming engineering freshwomen at Lehigh University, offers a mentoring program for women in her department and advises the Society for Women Engineers (SWE) and Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) local chapter, among others.
Sharing the PEV Perspective
This talk is designed for a prospective PEV who is interested in having as much information as possible on what the job really entails. The presentation will cover the details of an ABET visit from the perspective of a PEV, from the initial assignment to the campus visit and return home. Topics include communication with the rest of the team, tips for reviewing the materials prepared by the program and communicating with the program before the visit, required documentation, making travel arrangements, and what happens after arrival on campus. The importance of the team as the decision-making body, and the support that the more experienced team members will provide, are a focus of this talk.
This talk is designed for a prospective PEV who is interested in having as much information as possible on what the job really entails. The presentation will cover the details of an ABET visit from the perspective of a PEV, from the initial assignment to...
Jennifer Brock
Associate Dean for Academics and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alaska AnchorageJennifer McFerran Brock is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean for Academics at the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Engineering. In addition to leading her own department’s assessment efforts since 2012, she was chair of the UAA College of Engineering Assessment Committee from 2014-2018 and has been involved in numerous campus-wide assessment- and accreditation-related initiatives, most recently serving as a tri-chair of the UAA Institutional Self-Study Committee from 2016-18 in connection with the institution’s regional accreditation. She joined the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET in 2022.
The XPrize and Interdisciplinary Engineering
Bob Jones University created the class Eng 350 Global Challenges in the fall of 2021 for the purpose of bringing together interdisciplinary teams of students to work on global problems like climate change. The Fall 2021 class consisted of engineering students, business students and science students. They successfully entered Elon Musk's XPrize Carbon Removal challenge where they won a $100,000 student award in the measurement and verification tools category. This session discusses our experiences with this class, including the advantages and disadvantages of an interdisciplinary engineering class and the issues it raised related to ABET engineering accreditation.
Bob Jones University created the class Eng 350 Global Challenges in the fall of 2021 for the purpose of bringing together interdisciplinary teams of students to work on global problems like climate change. The Fall 2021 class consisted of engineering students, business students and science...
Bill Lovegrove
Department Head, Department of Engineering, Bob Jones UniversityBill Lovegrove has a Ph.D. in engineering from Clemson University and is the head of the Engineering Department at Bob Jones University. He is also an instructor for the Summer Institute in Teaching Science, the in-house faculty development program at BJU. He has a long-standing interest in engineering education and is an ABET program evaluator.
Using Data and Visualization in Assessment
Many programs working to design and implement assessment processes view their work as focused largely on system mechanics including defining learning outcomes, designing or identifying measures, creating and implementing data collection plans and conducting analyses. However, this functional focus on system mechanics may become problematic because it does not include sufficient consideration of how data and results can be presented for efficient and effective use in the continuous improvement process. Furthermore, this focus is myopic because it does not consider how best to communicate information about the assessment process to constituents including faculty and peer evaluators. Data visualization techniques incorporating high-impact graphic design principles provide excellent guidance to assist both in capturing results to enhance the continuous improvement process and to provide visual explanations of how an assessment process operates. This session will include data visualization principles and examples of high-impact graphics to demonstrate a clear and concise presentation of results that allows viewers to efficiently identify strengths and weaknesses in student performance, move beyond the data to reason about causes and easily identify viable improvements. Visualization principles and examples presented will also demonstrate applications of high-impact graphic designs to explain assessment process steps, division of labor and the breadth of results dissemination.
Many programs working to design and implement assessment processes view their work as focused largely on system mechanics including defining learning outcomes, designing or identifying measures, creating and implementing data collection plans and conducting analyses. However, this functional focus on system mechanics may become problematic...
Karen Tarnoff
Associate Dean, East Tennessee State UniversityKaren Tarnoff, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean for Assessment and International Programs for the College of Business and Technology at East Tennessee State University. In this capacity, she coordinates the assessment of student learning outcomes across seven diverse departments (i.e., Accountancy; Economics and Finance; Management and Marketing; Computing; Military Science; and Engineering, Engineering Technology, Surveying; and Digital Media) and multiple accrediting bodies (i.e., SACS, AACSB, ABET, NASAD, CIDA). She has given numerous presentations on assurance of learning and assessment-related topics and, likewise, has helped many schools develop, implement and refine their assessment systems. Tarnoff is a Global Lead Facilitator for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) having authored materials for its Assurance of Learning I and II Seminars and having served as a seminar facilitator since 2005. Tarnoff is pleased to be joining ABET to facilitate Fundamentals of Program Assessment Workshops and create content for other offerings. Her primary areas of research include assessment of student learning, the skills gap, team-based work systems and shared mental models.
ABET Assessment Resources and Education Information Session
Continuous improvement is the heart of the accreditation process. Best practices in the assessment of student learning is central to successfully and continuously improving program processes. Join us to learn more about ABET assessment resources and education to help you improve student learning in your program. You will be able to identify these assessment resources and determine which educational offerings best meet your needs. Interactive activities will test your program assessment knowledge.
Continuous improvement is the heart of the accreditation process. Best practices in the assessment of student learning is central to successfully and continuously improving program processes. Join us to learn more about ABET assessment resources and education to help you improve student learning in your...
Gloria Rogers
Senior Adjunct Director, Professional Offerings, ABETGloria Rogers, Ph.D., is currently serving as a Senior Adjunct Director for Professional Offerings at ABET. She is also the Assessment and Data Analyst for Indiana State University’s Physician Assistant program and Senior Scholar Emerita for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association. She has been providing workshops, webinars, seminars and institutes for the development of continuous quality improvement of educational programs and institutional effectiveness related to strategic planning for over three decades. She has been an external evaluator for major science, math, engineering and technology initiatives and has served as Chair of two national advisory committees and been a member of numerous review panels for the National Science Foundation. She has served as a reviewer for the Fulbright Senior Scholars program and has been a special editor for two issues of the International Journal of Engineering Education.
Rogers has authored assessment‐related articles, given invited presentations at national and international conferences and facilitated workshops/seminars on over 80 campuses. In addition to her local and national involvement in assessment and educational reform, she has given invited presentations, consultations and workshops in 31 countries including a Fulbright Senior Scholar assignment in Lima, Peru. In 2008, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education for her contributions to the engineering education profession.
James Warnock
Professor and Founding Chair, School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, University of GeorgiaJames N. Warnock is a professor and the founding chair of the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. Before coming to Athens, Warnock served as the associate dean for academic affairs at Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering. He earned a doctorate in chemical engineering and a master’s in biochemical engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, before completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Warnock has conducted research in the areas of cell and gene biomanufacturing, bioreactor design, tissue engineering and cellular mechanobiology. He is actively involved in engineering education research and has earned international acclaim for his work using problem-based learning to enable students to develop professional skills. He currently serves as the director for Engineering Workforce Development for the NSF Engineering Research Center in Cellular Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT).
Warnock is an adjunct director of professional offerings for ABET. In this role, he facilitates the planning, production and execution of the organization’s professional development programming and directs activities related to educational offerings and workshop-facilitator training.
Daina Briedis
Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment, Michigan State UniversityDaina M. Briedis, Ph.D., is currently an Adjunct Director of Professional Offerings at ABET. She also serves as Assistant Dean Emerita for Student Advancement and Program Assessment in the College of Engineering at Michigan State University and is a faculty member and ABET Coordinator in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Over the past 32 years, Briedis has served ABET as a program evaluator for AIChE, a team chair and member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), the first chair of the EAC Training and Materials Development Committee and an Executive Committee member of the EAC. She was a program evaluator on one of the very first “EC2000” visits and subsequently chaired several new criteria visits. Briedis has been an AIChE Representative Director on the ABET Board of Directors and has been involved in the design teams for the new program evaluator and train-the-trainers training materials. She is a lead facilitator for the program evaluator training sessions. She also consults in the area of accreditation and assessment and evaluation and serves on the Board of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). She was elected a Fellow of ABET in 2007, a Fellow of the AIChE in 2011 and a Fellow of ASEE in 2015. She is an ABET Senior IDEAL Scholar.
Robyn Hall
Director, Professional Programs, ABETRobyn Hall serves as ABET’s Director of Professional Programs. In her current capacity, she oversees ABET’s portfolio of assessment education. Prior to this, Hall served as the Assistant Vice President for Seminars and Digital Learning at AACSB International. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from Eckerd College, MBA from the Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa and, more recently, her Master Trainer certificate from the Association for Talent Development (ATD).
Professional Practice in Computing: Academia, Employers and Lessons from the DEAP
ABET accreditation criteria are developed to assure the public that graduates from ABET-accredited programs have the competence to enter professional practice. In the rapidly-evolving disciplines of computing, the perception persists that graduates are not ready for employment and companies are not realistic in their expectations of these graduates. For the past two years, the NSF-funded DEAPening Employer Academic Partnerships (DEAP) project has focused on bringing academia and employers together to find long-term solutions to this gap between academic preparation and career readiness. In this session, members of the DEAP leadership will summarize lessons from their experiences and discuss a periodic DEAP survey of computing practitioners that goes beyond individual program advisory boards. The session will also engage with the audience in exploring future synergies between DEAP and ABET accreditation to further strengthen the competence of graduates entering professional practice.
ABET accreditation criteria are developed to assure the public that graduates from ABET-accredited programs have the competence to enter professional practice. In the rapidly-evolving disciplines of computing, the perception persists that graduates are not ready for employment and companies are not realistic in their expectations...
Lawrence Jones
Former Distinguished Principal Researcher, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLawrence G. Jones’ 35+ years of ABET service includes: 2015-16 President, Accreditation Council Chair and Computing Accreditation Commission Chair. Lately, he has led projects to accredit associate programs in cybersecurity and bachelor degree programs in data science and helped investigate piloting ABET recognition of certificates.
Jones' U.S. Air Force career includes Chair of Computer Science at the USAF Academy. He retired from Carnegie-Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute as Distinguished Principal Researcher.
His B.S and M.S. in Industrial Engineering are from the University of Arkansas, and Ph.D. in Computer Science is from Vanderbilt. He is a Fellow of ABET and CSAB and recipient of ABET’s Grinter Award for Distinguished Service.
Rajendra Raj
Professor of Computer Science, Rochester Institute of TechnologyRajendra K. Raj, Ph.D., is a Professor of Computer Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). His research and teaching interests lie at the nexus of data science, cybersecurity and distributed computing. He has been an ABET Program Evaluator and Team Chair for almost two decades. Raj currently is a member of the CAC Executive Committee, served as the 2021-22 CAC Chair and is a Fellow of CSAB and ABET. Previously, as co-chair of the Joint CAC/CSAB Criteria Committee, he led the effort to revise accreditation criteria for all computing programs and develop cybersecurity program criteria. Before RIT, Raj was a vice president in information technology at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he designed, developed and managed proprietary, private-cloud global-infrastructures to support a variety of financial applications. He has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Susan Schall
Founder and Lead Consultant, SOS ConsultingSusan O. Schall is Founder of SOS Consulting. She has 35 years of experience with manufacturing, non-profit and higher education clients using engineering, statistical and process improvement methods. Schall also held engineering and leadership roles at RR Donnelley, GE Lighting, DuPont and Kodak. Schall is a Fellow of ABET and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). She has been on the ABET Board and Engineering Accreditation Commission. As the first ABET Adjunct Training Director, she transformed PEV training.
Schall's B.S. in Mathematics is from SUNY Fredonia, and B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State. She is an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence and Certified Prosci Change Practitioner.
EAC Town Hall
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate in the town hall session of their choice.
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate...
Mo Hosni
Professor and Director of the University Engineering Alliance, Kansas State UniversityMo Hosni, Ph.D., is a professor and director of the University Engineering Alliance at Kansas State University (K-State). He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Mississippi State University. He joined the faculty at K-State in 1991, served as the director of a multidisciplinary research center from 1993 to 2001, and department head of mechanical and nuclear engineering from 2001 to 2008. Hosni served as the ASME vice president for education and a member of the Council on Standards and Certification of ASME. Hosni served as the ABET Executive Committee member, Chair of the Training Committee and is the Vice Chair of Operations. He is a Fellow of ABET, ASME and ASHRAE.
Lorraine Fleming
Professor, Howard UniversityLorraine Fleming is a Professor of Civil Engineering at Howard University. She received her bachelor’s degree from Howard University and her doctoral degree from University of California, Berkeley. Fleming has been involved in ABET accreditation since 1999 and has served as an ASCE Program Evaluator (PEV), and an EAC Team Chair Commissioner. She currently serves an EAC Editor-2. She is a licensed professional engineer and a Fellow of ASCE.
Lizette Chevalier
Dean, Dr. Robert A. Savoie College of Engineering, University of New OrleansLizette Chevalier is currently serving as the Dean of the Dr. Robert A. Savoie College of Engineering at the University of New Orleans. Her B.S. degree is from Wayne State University and her M.S./Ph.D. degrees are from Michigan State University. She is a licensed professional engineer, a Fellow of ASCE and a Diplomat of Water Resources Engineering. She has held several academic administrative positions at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, all of which involved accreditation of programs as well as the institution. She has served as an ABET Program Evaluator, Team Chair, a member of the Executive Committee of the EAC and Chair of the EAC Continuous Improvement Committee.
Patsy Brackin
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of TechnologyPatsy Brackin is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where she also serves as Director of Engineering Design. Her B.S. and M.S. are from the University of Tennessee and her Ph.D. is from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has significant industry experience and is a licensed professional engineer as well as a Fellow of ASME and ABET. Brackin has been involved in several areas of ABET accreditation, including her position as her departmental ABET coordinator and member of ASME’s Committee on Engineering Accreditation. She has also served as a Program Evaluator, Team Chair and a member of the EAC Executive Committee, where she also served as chair of the Criteria Committee.
CAC Town Hall
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate in the town hall session of their choice.
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate...
Rajendra Raj
Professor of Computer Science, Rochester Institute of TechnologyRajendra K. Raj, Ph.D., is a Professor of Computer Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). His research and teaching interests lie at the nexus of data science, cybersecurity and distributed computing. He has been an ABET Program Evaluator and Team Chair for almost two decades. Raj currently is a member of the CAC Executive Committee, served as the 2021-22 CAC Chair and is a Fellow of CSAB and ABET. Previously, as co-chair of the Joint CAC/CSAB Criteria Committee, he led the effort to revise accreditation criteria for all computing programs and develop cybersecurity program criteria. Before RIT, Raj was a vice president in information technology at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he designed, developed and managed proprietary, private-cloud global-infrastructures to support a variety of financial applications. He has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Jean Blair
Professor of Computer Science, United States Military AcademyJean R. S. Blair is the EECS Distinguished Professor for Innovation and a Professor of Computer Science at the United States Military Academy where she previously held positions as deputy to the Chief Academic Officer, director of the Computer Science Program and director of the Information Systems Engineering Program. She spent several sabbatical years at the University in Bergen, Norway, where she served as a visiting professor and senior research scientist. Before joining the USMA faculty in 1994, Blair spent eight years on the faculty at the University of Tennessee and worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a research scientist. Blair earned her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and her B.S. degree from Allegheny College, double majoring in Economics and Computer Science. Her research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for combinatorial problems, with recent emphasis on graph algorithms and curricular design for emerging computing disciplines. She is author of numerous academic articles and has received research grants and awards from various agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Labs.
Blair serves as a commissioner and team chair for the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET and is a member of the CAC Executive Committee. She volunteers as an accreditation team member for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, has been active in local and regional leadership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), was on the Steering Committee for the Cyber Education Project, has been a member of the working groups that developed accreditation criteria for Data Science programs, was a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Computing and Information, and was a guest editor for Discrete Mathematics. Blair is a senior member of IEEE, a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). She is a member of the international honor society for the computing and information disciplines (Upsilon Pi Epsilon), the international honor society in social sciences (Pi Gamma Mu) and was an Alden Scholar at Allegheny College.
Scott Murray
Staff Data Engineer, Procore TechnologiesScott Murray is currently a Staff Data Engineer for Procore Technologies (www.procore.com) and has worked in the data analytics/business intelligence area for over 20 years. Additionally, Murray is an adjunct instructor for Kennesaw State University, Maryville University and Reinhardt University. He also currently serves on the executive committee of the ABET Computing Accreditation Commission and is a current CSAB board member.
ETAC Town Hall
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate in the town hall session of their choice.
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate...
Carol Schulte
Professor (retired), McNeese State UniversityCarol Schulte is retired from McNeese State University, where she taught courses in process plant technology, a chemical engineering technology program. She earned her BSChE degree at Wayne State University in Detroit. Schulte also has an M.S. in chemistry and an M.E.M. from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Also at Lamar, she received her DE in industrial engineering. She has worked in industry for companies such as DuPont, PPG and Condea Vista. Schulte is currently a member of the AIChE Education and Accreditation Committee and leads the Engineering Technology Education Subcommittee. She is an ETAC evaluator for AIChE and IISE and has been an ETAC Commissioner representing AIChE. She is currently a member of the ETAC Executive Committee. She has served as chair of the ETAC Quality Committee and the ETAC Training Committee. She now serves as the ETAC Chair.
Raju Dandu
Professor/Director Bulk Solids Innovation Center, Kansas State University SalinaRaju Dandu is the Chair-Elect of Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) of ABET and served on ABET Governance as a member of board of delegates. Dandu is an experienced American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Engineering Technology Program Evaluator (PEV), ETAC Commissioner and has performed several ABET accreditation visits in the U.S. and internationally. Dandu served as a member of the ASME Committee on Engineering Education, Board of Directors of American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and Board of Directors of Salina Area United Way. Dandu provided consulting services in product design, manufacturing, industrial automation, patent filing, grant writing, startup business development, product CE certification, reliability centered maintenance and training industry workforce. Currently, he works with a team of industry experts at Bulk Solids Innovation Center (BSIC), the only university-centered facility and staff in North America dedicated to improving technology and knowledge of powder and bulk solids handling of various industries including: food, chemicals, minerals, pharmaceuticals and plastics. From research, education, training, access to technology and lab scale sample to full-scale testing of dry bulk solids, this unique Center identifies and solves real-world industrial problems.
Dandu is also a Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology and Director of Kansas State University BSIC. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, Diploma Engineer from Slovak Technical University, Czechoslovakia in Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering, and Diploma in Automobile Engineering from Andhra Polytechnic, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. He also served as graduate program director Kansas State University Salina campus. Dandu is fluent in spoken and written English, Slovak, Czech and Telug and can communicate in Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi.
April Cheung
Assistant Professor of Practice, Electrical Engineering Technology, Purdue UniversityApril Cheung currently serves as the Chair-Elect of ETAC at ABET, previously chairing the ETAC Training Committee. Her experience in ABET also includes roles as: Program Evaluator, Team Chair and Editor. She served on the IEEE Committee on Engineering Technology Accreditation Activities (CETAA) from 2010-2012 and 2016-present, where she chairs the CETAA Communications Committee. Cheung was a research and development manager at BraunAbility, where she managed and developed new products and technologies for wheelchair accessible vehicles. She was also an Electronics Engineering Manager for IMMI, where she managed and developed electronic active and passive safety products used in class 8 trucks, fire trucks and ambulances. She is currently an assistant professor of practice at Purdue University Polytechnic Institute at West Lafayette, Indiana.
ANSAC Town Hall
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate in the town hall session of their choice.
Culminating the 2023 ABET Symposium, each of ABET’s Accreditation Commissions will have an interactive town hall session. After a brief presentation, members of the respective commission’s volunteer leadership and its Adjunct Director(s) will open the floor for accreditation questions and discussions. Symposium attendees may participate...
Alice Greife
Dean, College of Health, Science and Technology, University of Central MissouriAlice Greife, Ph.D., CIH, FAIH, a dual board-certified industrial hygienist and occupational toxicologist, received her master’s degree in industrial hygiene from the University of Central Missouri and her doctorate in occupational toxicology from the University of Cincinnati. Currently, she is Dean of the College of Health, Science and Technology at University of Central Missouri. She also teaches graduate courses in toxicology and epidemiology in the ABET-accredited master of science program in industrial hygiene. Greife serves as a member of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board for Occupational Surveillance and is a consultant to the World Health Organization. Greife is also a member of the Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission of ABET and serves on the Executive Board. Prior to UCM, Greife served as director of the Division of Training and Education, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Randal Keller
Professor of Occupational Safety and Health and the Jesse D. Jones Endowed Professor of the College of Science, Murray State UniversityDr. Randal Keller has been a Murray State faculty member in the department of Occupational Safety and Health since 1996 and currently is the Jesse D. Jones Endowed Professor of the College of Science. He earned his Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees in toxicology from Utah State University and his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Eisenhower College. He did his post-doctoral training at the National Center for Toxicological Research in the Division of Biochemical Toxicology. Keller began his academic career in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences where he directed the Occupational and Environmental Health Program. He holds board certifications in the areas of toxicology, industrial hygiene and safety.
Keller has served on and led numerous national peer-review committees including those for the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. He served two terms on the Committee on Chemical Demilitarization for the Board on Army Science and Technology in the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council. He is currently Vice-Chair for the Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission of ABET. Keller received the 2019 Sandra Flynn Professor of the Year Award and has authored dozens of publications and presentations throughout his career. Keller created and coached the first Murray State Triathlon Club. In his spare time, he is an avid bicyclist and enjoys auditing German language courses.
Niaz Latif
Professor and Dean, College of Technology, Interim Dean, College of Engineering and Sciences, Purdue University NorthwestDr. Niaz Latif is Professor and Dean, College of Technology and Interim Dean, College of Engineering and Sciences at Purdue University Northwest (PNW). Latif has played several important leadership roles at PNW, most recently as the Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. He also served as the Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies.
Latif is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and received the ASEE Frederick J. Berger Award for programmatic and individual excellence in engineering technology education. He was awarded PNW’s Outstanding Administrative Leader Award. He is the Executive Director of the Commercialization and Manufacturing Excellence Center (CMEC). Latif received several federal grants for workforce development, including grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Latif earned his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, Columbia.