Proposed Best Practices For Preparing Bioengineering And Biomedical Engineering Programs For Abet Accreditation
- Conference
- Location
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Honolulu, Hawaii
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2007
- Start Date
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June 24, 2007
- End Date
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June 27, 2007
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Biomedical
- Page Count
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14
- Page Numbers
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12.1210.1 - 12.1210.14
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--1717
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/1717
- Download Count
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588
Paper Authors
Susan Blanchard Florida Gulf Coast University
SUSAN M. BLANCHARD is Founding Director of the U.A. Whitaker School of Engineering and Professor of Bioengineering at Florida Gulf Coast University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in 1980 and 1982, respectively, and her A.B. in Biology from Oberlin College in 1968. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and is an ABET Program Evaluator.
James Sweeney Florida Gulf Coast University
JAMES D. SWEENEY is Professor and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Florida Gulf Coast University. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 1988 and 1983, respectively, and his Sc.B. Engineering degree (Biomedical Engineering) from Brown University in 1979. He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and an ABET Program Evaluator.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Proposed Best Practices for Preparing Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering Programs for ABET Accreditation
Introduction
When Enderle et al. published “The ABCs of Preparing for ABET” in 2003, they reported that there were 24 ABET accredited programs in bioengineering and biomedical engineering (BME).1 Today, there are 42 with 22 of those programs (52.4%, Figure 1) having been accredited from 2000 until the present and six accredited in 2006 (Table 1).2 The number of bioengineering and biomedical engineering programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET, www.abet.org) continues to grow as the number of undergraduate programs increases. Of the more than 80 undergraduate programs listed in The Whitaker Foundation’s Biomedical Engineering Curriculum Database, fourteen were formed in 2003 or later with the total number of biomedical engineering departments now numbering around 75.3, 4 Seven new BME programs were visited in fall 2006.5 Assuming that the new programs formed in 2003 and 2004 will have graduates in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and are prepared for the accreditation process, seven new programs will have ABET accreditation visits in fall 2007 and five more in fall 2008. If all of the new programs visited in fall 2006 through fall 2008 are successful, there will be a total of 61 ABET-accredited BME programs by summer 2009 with two-thirds of those representing new programs (Figure 1). This paper addresses accreditation issues and strategies from the perspective of new programs, including a number of proposed “best practices” gleaned in part from a survey of recently accredited bioengineering and biomedical engineering programs. This information should also be useful to existing programs that are preparing for re-accreditation visits.
Figure 1: ABET-Accredited Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering Programs2
70
60
50 Number of Programs
40
NEW TOTAL
30
20
10
0 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2006 2000-2009 Projected
Blanchard, S., & Sweeney, J. (2007, June), Proposed Best Practices For Preparing Bioengineering And Biomedical Engineering Programs For Abet Accreditation Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1717
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