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Designing an ABET-ready Computer Engineering Program in a Medium-Sized Liberal Arts College

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

Curricular Advancements in ECE

Tagged Division

Electrical and Computer

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--32614

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/32614

Download Count

461

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Paper Authors

biography

Gina Martinez Lewis University

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Gina Martinez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computational and Mathematical Sciences and the Director of Computer Engineering at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. She earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology in December 2014 for her dissertation on "Optimal Routing Algorithms in Energy-harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks". Prior to that, she received an M.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include digital and wireless communications, computer architecture, computer hardware/software interface, hardware virtualization, embedded systems, computer networks and the internet of things.

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biography

Safwan Omari Lewis University

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Safwan Omari is an Associate Professor of Computer Science in the department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at Lewis University, USA. Dr. Omari received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2009 from Wayne State University, USA. Besides his academic career, Dr. Omari spent several years working in the industry as a senior software engineer including Nokia and Amazon. His research interests include wireless sensor networks, distributed systems, computer security, and most recently, software quality metrics. Dr. Omari is involved in computer science curriculum development and computing-related program accreditation.

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Abstract

While most engineering students aspire to graduate from a top engineering university, many choose to attend small to mid-size liberal arts colleges for various reasons, including financial, location and learning needs. It is essential that these engineering students are given the opportunity to receive their degrees from an ABET-accredited program as many employers specify this as a minimum education qualification. However, engineering programs in liberal arts colleges face many challenges, especially recently-launched ones, from limited financial support, facilities, external partnerships and support, program marketing, and student enrollment and retention. This paper presents a model for a cost-effective, efficient and timely way of getting the engineering program ABET-accredited. Most existing works on ABET Accreditation for ECE programs have focused on programs residing in large public or private universities, and those in technical-focused institutions, often with dedicated engineering colleges or departments. These programs typically do not face the same unique challenges that engineering programs within liberal arts colleges face. The paper focuses on the initial accreditation of a Computer Engineering program.

Martinez, G., & Omari, S. (2019, June), Designing an ABET-ready Computer Engineering Program in a Medium-Sized Liberal Arts College Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32614

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