ABET: A Help or a Hindrance?
ABET is an acronym that often evokes negative emotions in faculty, department chairs, and associate deans. Program evaluators are perceived to be nit-picky about minor issues, such as seemingly irrelevant assessment metrics and definitions of terms in the application of ABET criteria. Many educators around the nation groan in despair when it comes time for an ABET accreditation visit. Rather than suffer through the preparations, programs should use the accreditation process as an opportunity to improve the quality of engineering education.
If we focus on providing a high-quality educational experience for our students, then the preparation for an ABET visit should become a relatively straightforward task. ABET's core message is often misinterpreted. If a program sees ABET as a bar to overcome, then that is a mistaken attitude. Articulating how we are providing students with a quality, relevant, innovative curriculum; measuring our results; and responding to issues are fundamental to our mission. Accreditation will always require documentation; it is an integral part of the continuous improvement process and can be the catalyst for significant innovation.
The ABET evaluation visit has been, unfortunately, what most programs focus on rather than the continuous improvement. ABET has been working hard in the last three years to sharpen its message that programs should be innovative and creative in approaches that improve education. To this end, ABET has revamped and centralized its program evaluator training program and implemented a retraining program to ensure that the program evaluators are fully cognizant of this new message.
ABET is also addressing these issues by establishing new processes and procedures that recognize innovations, continuous improvement, and attainment of outcomes beyond the minimum. Examples of these efforts will be presented.
Biographies
Amy J. Moll is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Interim Dean of the College of Engineering at Boise State University. She joined the faculty in August 2000. Moll received a B.S. degree in ceramic engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1987. Her M.S. degree and Ph.D. are in materials science and engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992 and 1994.
Following graduate school, Moll worked for Hewlett-Packard in San Jose, CA, and in Colorado Springs, CO. Along with Dr. Bill Knowlton, Moll founded the Materials Science and Engineering Program at BSU and served as the first chair.
Moll's research interests include microelectronic packaging, particularly 3-D integration and ceramic MEMS devices. She especially enjoys teaching the "Introduction to Engineering" and "Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering" courses, as well as engineering outreach activities.
Currently, Moll is an Associate Director representing the Materials Research Society (MRS) on the ABET Board of Directors.
Steve Yalisove is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
He received his M.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Postdoctoral Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, for two years.
Yalisove's current research focuses on understanding the relationships between atomic structure and materials properties at surfaces and interfaces in a wide variety of material systems. He has made important contributions to the fields of surface science, thin film growth, evolution of thin film morphology, and most recently, the interaction of high intensity femtosecond laser pulses and materials. His group is studying ultrafast laser/material interaction to understand the fundamental mechanisms that drive ablation and collateral damage. His work focuses on the damage and material removal processes in metals and semiconductors. Yalisove uses a variety of characterization techniques, including pump-probe ultrafast microscopy, femtosecond Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (fsLIBS), dual pulse LIBS, optical and scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and a variety of in situ probes. Recently, his group discovered a novel approach to nano- and micro-fluidic channel manufacturing using ultrafast lasers. Additionally, his group has been investigating the role of an interface in significant lowering of removal thresholds.
Yalisove is an ABET program evaluator and previously represented the Materials Research Society (MRS) on the ABET Board of Directors from 2005 to 2011.