Capstone Design and ABET Program Outcomes in the U. S.

1. Capstone Design and ABET Program Outcomes in the U. S. Paul H. King, Ph.D., P.E. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

2. Overview • The role of ABET in the US • Design & ABET, from the instructor’s viewpoint • “Impact Analysis” of design and ABET • Design & ABET, from a Program Evaluator’s viewpoint

3. The role of ABET in the US • … was Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology • … has expanded in scope • … is a engineering and technology specialty area accreditation agency, now advising worldwide. • … is therefore the primary US based US engineering education QA agency.

4. The Accreditation Process • Request for evaluation, payment of fees • Generation of documents re: School and upper level support (libraries, salaries, etc.) • Generation of program specific documents regarding curriculum distribution, course content, quality control methodologies, outcome measurements, objectives of the program, etc. • One school document and one document per program to be evaluated will be mailed to evaluators 2-4 months prior to visit.

5. Accreditation, continued • Program evaluator(s) selected, material sent, correspondence as necessary… • Course and outcome notebooks generated, ready for review (future stress on outcomes!) • … Fall on site visit by evaluator teams & chairman, lab and facility visits, meetings with students, deans, • Exit material documentation & discussion • Revisions if needed, final decisions by early summer. Six year term generally, …

6. Design & ABET: Instructor’s View • VU: 1991, 3 hours, required, ABET planned • -> 1997 3+3 (of 127) • -> 2003 2+1, 3 • Overall goal: “ prepared for engineering practice … major design experience based upon the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work.” • Lectures on design, then ~ 6 months project

7. General ABET List: • a – k outcomes must be documented: • a = “ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science and engineering’ • b = “ability to design & conduct experiments …” • c = “ability to design a system, component, …” • … • k = “ability to use the techniques, …”

8. Design Documentation for ABET • As with all courses, representative documentation of student output from the design course was collected and placed into notebooks for our evaluator. • Selected material was then extracted and placed into notebooks summarizing a-k outcomes. • Each course was summarized regarding topical material stressed re: a-k (2 pages.)

9. 2007 Course & Outcome Books: 13 a-k => 19 notebooks, top 2 shelves 27 Course books, 4 of which are design, the only multi-book collection, bottom 3 shelves

10. BME 272-273 Design of Biomedical Engineering Devices and Systems I & II Outcomes

11. BME 297 Senior Engineering Design Seminar Outcomes

12. Coverage = % non-blank lines of a-k coverage (prior slides) Intensity = sum of non-blank lines (H=3) “Impact” = coverage * intensity * # of semesters =>> Design is critical to the ABET process!!!

13. Design from an Evaluator’s perspective: • Do all possible pre-visit documentation. • For a new program: look at the design documentation first, does it fit the criteria? Continue next with other documentation. • For an established program, generally look for uniqueness and strengths first, design will not generally be a stumbling block.

14. Recent Developments - ABET “The program shall demonstrate that those faculty members teaching courses that are primarily design in content are qualified to teach the subject matter by virtue of education and experience or professional licensure.” 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 (8 of 28 programs)

15. Conclusion: • Senior design is a critical portion of the overall ABET evaluation of the outcomes of a program. • While Biomedical Engineering is the example given here, this should generally be tru of all curricula. • ABET is stressing this fact with the requirement of licensure for several programs.

16. Questions? • Thanks -