Chicago, Illinois
June 18, 2006
June 18, 2006
June 21, 2006
2153-5965
Engineering Technology
24
11.36.1 - 11.36.24
10.18260/1-2--687
https://strategy.asee.org/687
490
Daniel P. Johnson is the Program Chair for the Manufacturing Engineering Technology Program at RIT. Prior to joining the MMET Faculty he was Director of RIT’s Manufacturing Management and Leadership Program and a Manufacturing Engineer for Allied Signal. He has a Master of Engineering Degree in Manufacturing and a BS in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering from RIT as well as an AAS in Engineering Science from Hudson Valley Community College.
Professor Merrill is the Program Chair for the Mechanical Engineering Technology Program at RIT. He has taught at RIT for 34 years and served as the Department Chair for the Mechanical Engineering Technology Department for 4 years. He worked in industry for 4 years prior to joining RIT and has been consultant to area industry for over 25 years. Professor Merrill earned a BSME from Clarkson and a MSME from Northeastern.
Professor Scudder was the Program Chair for Electrical/Mechanical Engineering Technology at RIT for more than 10 years and was a member of the faculty for almost 20. He had 28 years of industry experience at the Eastman Kodak Company and received bachelor and masters degrees from Cornell University. He was a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of New York and was the faculty advisor for the RIT Model Railroad Club. Sadly, Jim passed away before this paper was completed. His co-authors will miss him dearly.
John A. Stratton, PE, is Professor of Electrical/Mechanical Engineering Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology and has served as the chair of two departments and as Associate Dean over the last several years. John is Past Chair of the St. Lawrence Section of ASEE. He was the first President of Tau Alpha Pi if ASEE, Inc. John has published several papers for the ASEE and the IEEE.
Since August 1, 2003 Dr. Sutherland has been Professor in and the Chair of the MMET/PS Department in the College of Applied Science and Technology at RIT in Rochester, NY. Prior to joining RIT Dr. Sutherland was the founding President, in 1997, of Washington Manufacturing Services (WMS), a private not-for-profit WA company. From 1985 to 1997 Dr. Sutherland was the Vice President of CAMP Inc., a Cleveland Ohio based not-for-profit company that he co-founded in 1984 and joined in 1985. From 1979-85 he was manager of the Automation Mechanics Lab of the General Electric Company Lighting Business Group. Dr. Sutherland was an Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio from 1973-79. Dr. Sutherland holds a Ph.D. in mechanical design from Stanford University.
Introduction:
The seven engineering technology (ET) programs at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) were due for a TAC of ABET re-accreditation visit in the fall of 2004. This was the first year in which all of the visits would occur using the TC2K criteria. Three of these programs are housed in the Manufacturing & Mechanical Engineering Technology and Packaging Science Department (MMET/PS). The department chose to have the three programs use the same continuous improvement process, adjusted for the mission of each program.
RIT is a private non-profit university in upstate New York, with approximately 15,000 (headcount) students. The engineering technology programs are housed in the College of Applied Science and Technology (CAST), with a focus on both technology and service. CAST has approximately 3,200 headcount students, with 1,550 of these in ET or related programs. MMET/PS has about 900 headcount students, with 625 of these students enrolled in undergraduate ET programs.
The three TAC of ABET accredited ET programs in MMET/PS are Mechanical Engineering Technology, Manufacturing Engineering Technology, and Electrical/Mechanical Engineering Technology. The three programs share the same liberal arts, mathematics, physics, introductory chemistry, free and technical electives, and mechanical and manufacturing core of courses. Each of the programs also has a series of courses particular to the needs of its intended students and employers.
The three programs chose to have their program educational objectives written in very similar terms. They also chose to use the TAC A-K program outcomes, expanding outcome “A” to include each of the components required by the applicable program criteria. Each of the programs also chose a few additional program outcomes particular to their anticipated students and employers.
CAST and each of the ET departments trained its faculty and administrators in TC2K through a series of activities. An expert in TC2K presented a general one-day seminar to all ET faculty and administrators. The associate dean, department chairs, program chairs and selected faculty attended many of the ABET and ASEE training events. Three of the ET faculty have been trained as TAC of ABET program evaluators and have participated in the evaluation of programs at other universities.
Johnson, D., & Merrill, R., & Scudder, J., & Stratton, J., & Sutherland, G. (2006, June), A Continuous Improvement Process For A Large Multi Program Engineering Technology Department Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--687
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