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Current Students

B.S. Environmental Engineering Program

Program Assessment and Evaluation

Overview

To many students, the curriculum they follow to get their degree reads like a magical list of courses that someone long ago thought was the path towards graduation. Engineers are different. We follow a very formal procedure for getting you from where you are to the end of your career. You are a big part of the process.

The process is described below in detail. Briefly, we start with defining the people important to the program (constituents - this includes you). We ask the constituents (including you through the Senior Exit Survey starting in 2009) for help in identifying the appropriate career achievements for an environmental engineer (program educational objectives). Periodically, we ask alumni and employers if our graduates have met these achievements. We created a list of skills and knowledge that you need at the end of your senior year in order to achieve the career objectives. Items on this list are called the program outcomes. The curriculum is designed to help you achieve the program outcomes. We check your work throughout your time here and ask for your opinion to determine whether you have achieved the program outcomes. In the vernacular of higher education, the program is outcomes based (based on what you know and can do, not based on what is covered in class) and devoted to continuous improvement.

Accreditation

UB's environmental engineering program is accredited by ABET, Inc. With an ABET-accredited B.S. degree, graduates eventually may apply for registration as a Professional Engineer (PE) (see Section 1.3). ABET conducts reviews of undergraduate programs for accreditation at 6-year intervals. Our last review was in October 2008.

The Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering has developed a program of self-evaluation and continuous improvement designed to sustain an environmental engineering education of increasing high quality and meet the accreditation requirements of ABET. Key components of this program include:

• Definition of the constituents served by the environmental engineering program

• Establishment of program educational objectives with our constituents

• Establishment of program outcomes, in conjunction with ABET and ASCE

• An ongoing program of assessment that measures the degree to which the program educational objectives and program outcomes are being met

• An ongoing program of evaluation to improve the environmental engineering program in response to feedback from the assessment process

Constituents

The constituencies of the environmental engineering program include:

• Current students in the environmental engineering program and their families

• Department faculty

• Other faculty in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

• Other faculty of the University at Buffalo

• Employers who participate in the Engineering Career Institute and the environmental engineering internship and co-op programs

• Graduate and professional schools

• Employers of environmental engineering graduates, including engineering consulting firms, government agencies, manufacturing and construction companies, and educational and research institutions

• Program alumni

Program Educational Objectives

Program educational objectives are broad statements that describe the career and professional accomplishments that the program is preparing you to achieve. Consistent with the mission and vision of the department, the program educational objectives of the environmental engineering program are to:

• Be employed and promoted as environmental engineers in consulting, industry, government, and academia or employed and promoted in related professions.

• Maintain state-of-the-art knowledge through lifelong learning, such as graduate study and continuing education.

• Respond to the changing impact of environmental engineering solutions in a global and social context.

• Advance and support the engineering profession through participation in professional societies, civic groups, and educational institutions.

Program Outcomes

Consistent with the program educational objectives outlined above, graduates of the environmental engineering program should be able to:

• solve problems in mathematics through differential equations, calculus-based physics, chemistry, and one additional area of science

• design an environmental engineering experiment to meet a need; conduct the experiment, and analyze and interpret the resulting data

• design a complex system or process to meet desired needs, within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability

• function effectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary team

• solve well-defined engineering problems in technical areas appropriate to environmental engineering

• analyze a complex situation involving multiple conflicting professional and ethical interests, to determine an appropriate course of action

• organize and deliver effective verbal, written, and graphical communications

• determine the global, economic, environmental, and societal impacts of a specific, relatively constrained engineering solution

• demonstrate the ability to learn on their own, without the aid of formal instruction

• incorporate specific contemporary issues into the identification, formulation, and solution of a specific engineering problem

• apply relevant techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools to solve a simple problem

A more detailed list of program outcomes may be found in the Undergraduate Studies Manual. In each course syllabus, you will see how the course relates to the outcomes in Appendix C. For example, a course linked to “3a(K)” will help you “solve problems in mathematics through differential equations, calculus-based physics, chemistry, and one additional area of science.”

Assessment

Formal assessment activities were initiated in 1999 with the first exit survey of environmental engineering seniors. End-of-semester surveys and the senior exit survey are a component of the department's self-assessment. Since the 2002 ABET visit, assessment efforts have been expanded to include examination of student work to determine if program outcomes are being achieved. This effort includes a comprehensive examination of student work, student experiences in co-ops, and performance data from the Fundamentals of Engineering exam.

Program educational objectives were developed with the assistance of a target group of employers and other constituents. Program educational objectives are assessed through employer and alumni surveys

Evaluation and Continuous Improvement

In response to the feedback received from the assessment program, the department is engaged in an on-going program of self-improvement. Recent examples of these activities include:

• Revisions to the program Educational Objectives assessment process

• Revisions to the program Outcomes based on the ASCE Body of Knowledge

• Execution of a pilot study to design the program outcome assessment and evaluation process

• Addition of primary data sources to the assessment process for program outcomes

• Inclusion of professional development milestones

• Cumulative design experience revisions

• Increase in the credit hours of the laboratory courses

• Prerequisite enforcement

• Standardization of course syllabi

• Student computing laboratory rehabilitation

• Undergraduate Studies secretary hired

• Redistribution of assessment/evaluation responsibilities

• Career Services specialist in engineering