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

Paul H. King, Ph.D., P.E. 

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

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

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.

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.

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, …

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

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, …”

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.)

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

A B1 B2 C D E F G1 G2 H I J K

Topics

Apply Math,

Science, Engineering Principles

Design & conduct

experiments

Analyze and

interpret data

Design system/component/proc

ess

Function on multidisciplinary teams

Identify, formulate,s

olve Engineering Problems

Understand professional and ethical responsibilit

y

Written communicat

ion

Oral communicat

ion

Broadly educated

Need for life-long learning

Knowledge of

contemporary issues

Use in engineering

practice

BME 272

Intro, Def's, Basics                          

Career Overview                     L L  

Safety, reliability       L     L         L L

Licensure,consulting             H     L H H H

QA/QI L   L M   M           M  

Regs & Standards       M   M H     L L M M

Product specification     L M     L           M

Risk/safety M   L M M L M L   L L L L

Databases L   L L L L L L   L L L L

Requirements, LiabilityL   L L   L H     L L M L

Intellectual Property         L   H         H L

Human Factors L     H   L M     L L H L

Software design, metrics    L L   M L       L L L

Design Project-Fall M L L H H H L H   L   H H

BME 273

Design Project -Spr M L M H H M L H H M M M M

 

SUMMARY M L L H* H* H* M* M M L M M M

BME 272-273 Design of Biomedical Engineering Devices and Systems I & IIOutcomes

A B1 B2 C D E F G1 G2 H I J K

Topics

Apply Math,

Science, Engineeri

ng Principles

Design & conduct

experiments

Analyze and

interpret data

Design system/component/process

Function on

multidisciplinary teams

Identify, formulate,

solve Engineeri

ng Problems

Understand

professional and ethical

responsibility

Written communi

cation

Oral communi

cation

Broadly educated

Need for life-long learning

Knowledge of

contemporary

issues

Use in engineeri

ng practice

Intellectual property & patents

H M

Risk assessment and reduction

M M

Reliability and testing

M M M M M

Contracts M MTeams and team development

M M M M

Workplace safety

M M M

Safety M M MHuman factors M M M HManufacturing L M MCareer Issues M M M MEthics H M H HSUMMARY L H H H

BME 297 Senior Engineering Design SeminarOutcomes

Impact Analysis for Required BME Courses at Vanderbilt University

Course Name Coverage (%) Intensity # terms, yr Impact

Introductory Biomechanics 92 16 1, So 15

Biomedical Materials 85 20 1, So 17

Biomedical Instrumentation 92 21 1, Jr 19

Analysis of Biomedical Data 92 18 1, Jr 17

Physiological Transport Phenomena 100 24 1, Jr 24

Systems Physiology I 70 18 1, Jr 13

Systems Physiology II 38 10 1, Jr 4

Biomedical Engineering Laboratory 54 19 1, Sr 10

Senior Design 100 29 2, Sr 58

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!!!

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.

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)

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.

Questions?

• Thanks -