The ECE culminating design experience: analysis of ABET 2000 compliance at leading academic institutions

Abstract

The ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs serve as a mechanism for creating consistency in American engineering programs. A significant element of these criteria is the design component, which specifies the need for a culminating design experience at the conclusion of the undergraduate degree. Given the generality of the ABET criteria, educational institutions are granted some level of autonomy in their actual implementation of the design component. While many institutions have exploited this freedom to a positive end, others appear to have diverged significantly from the intended spirit of the criteria. This work chronicles implementation of the culminating design experience component in electrical and computer engineering programs at top universities across the United States. A customized classification system is employed to demonstrate each university's effectiveness in implementing the design component and its associated outcomes. The results of these classifications are used to illustrate shortcomings in current implementations as well as propose possible revisions to the criteria to prevent future problems.