Designing an ABET-ready Computer Engineering Program in a Medium-Sized Liberal Arts College

While most engineering students aspire to graduate from a top engineering university, many choose to attend small to mid-size liberal arts colleges for various reasons, including financial, location and learning needs. It is essential that these engineering students are given the opportunity to receive their degrees from an ABET-accredited program as many employers specify this as a minimum education qualification. However, engineering programs in liberal arts colleges face many challenges, especially recently-launched ones, from limited financial support, facilities, external partnerships and support, program marketing, and student enrollment and retention. This paper presents a model for a cost-effective, efficient and timely way of getting the engineering program ABET-accredited. Most existing works on ABET Accreditation for ECE programs have focused on programs residing in large public or private universities, and those in technical-focused institutions, often with dedicated engineering colleges or departments. These programs typically do not face the same unique challenges that engineering programs within liberal arts colleges face. The paper focuses on the initial accreditation of a Computer Engineering program.