We are excited to announce that the American Statistical Association (ASA) — the world’s largest community of statisticians — has been admitted to CSAB as a full member, effective immediately. ASA joins the world’s two largest professional and technical societies for computing, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS), to promote and assure quality in computing and computing-related education through accreditation.
As the lead ABET member society for computing, CSAB is responsible for developing accreditation criteria and selecting, training and assigning program evaluators in computer science, cybersecurity, data science, information systems, information technology and software engineering. There are currently more than 600 ABET-accredited undergraduate degree programs in these fields spanning 26 countries.
“This is very exciting news for the computing community,” said CSAB President and 2020 ABET Fellow Donna Reese, Professor Emerita of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Mississippi State University. “The studies of statistics and computing have always shared commonalities, but this is the first formal opportunity we’ve had to collaborate in terms of curricula and accreditation criteria, particularly in data science. CSAB prides itself on rapidly responding to the need for quality assurance in new and emerging fields of study. Its work in developing data science accreditation criteria and partnership with ASA are prime examples.”
Learn more about ABET accreditation of data science >
“ASA is delighted to join ACM and IEEE-CS in their efforts to ensure quality in the degree programs in this great new field,” said Kathy Ensor, ASA President-Elect. “Making sure the graduates have the statistical and other preparation they need is good for the students and for the marketplace.”
As a full member of CSAB, ASA will have voting representation on its Board of Directors, as well as on its Criteria and Nominating Committees, among other important bodies. Its members will be eligible to serve as ABET Program Evaluators for CSAB and to be nominated by CSAB to serve on ABET’s accreditation commissions.