University Industry Partnerships For Abet Ec 2000 Preparation: A Case Study

Preparation for a first ABET EC 2000 visit requires new ways of thinking and organization. Industrial partners can be of strategic help in making the transition from the old to the new Criteria for an Engineering Program or a College of Engineering because most corporations have embraced the “Quality” transitions of the last two decades, including Quality Teams, ISO 9000, Malcolm Baldridge competitions and the like. These companies, therefore, are a resource for the institutional change required to implement EC 2000. This paper presents a case study of how an engineering college teamed with a strategic industrial partner can use expertise and external viewpoint to introduce the concepts of total quality management and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) among the faculty. The purpose of this partnership is to focus the thinking of the faculty and administration and to identify areas of strength and weakness within the programs. This paper describes how such a partnership was established over the two-year period – 1999-2000 between the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso and Raytheon Corporation in preparation for an ABET EC 2000 visit in Fall 2001. An assessment of the faculty after a 1999 joint workshop and 2000 ABET Mock Visit showed: (i) significant improvements in faculty understanding of ABET EC 2000; (ii) significant gains in knowledge of areas of strength and weakness; and (iii) enhanced interdepartmental interaction among faculty in the college. The Strategic Partnership Most university engineering programs now have industrial advisory boards. From the corporate viewpoint, membership on such boards focuses on recruiting students, access to research expertise, and influence on curricular matters of concern to industrial members. From the academic side, industrial members are often sought for corporate placement of student graduates, research funding or collaboration, design project opportunities, financial support and curricular advice. These goals form a solid foundation for the industry-academic partnership. However, to move to the level of a “strategic partnership,” a deeper commitment on both sides and longerterm thinking are required. If both the University and the corporate partner are committed, ABET related issues naturally arise. After all, the new EC 2000 criteria are based on outcomes, require dialogue with constituents, and call for data reporting on student performance in the workplace. Although ultimately the burden of responsibility for accreditation falls to the academic institution, industrial partners are also stakeholders in that most want to hire students from accredited programs. P ge 6.086.1 “Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education” In this case study of the Raytheon-UTEP partnership, all of these core elements were in place. Additionally, Raytheon’s extensive experience with “Quality” issues, such as ISO 9000, Total Quality Management, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), made Raytheon uniquely qualified to assist the College in its ABET preparation. Specifically, Raytheon knew how to survey constituencies, put a quality team together, measure and assess outcomes, and use the data for establishing a process for continuous improvement. From Raytheon’s perspective, there was a commitment to work with its academic partner, but also an awareness that this joint effort would strengthen the relationship, significantly benefiting Raytheon for the reasons outlined above. More importantly, Raytheon personnel had something to contribute that was truly needed and helpful. This partnership was also intended to help faculty in the College of Engineering focus on ABET’s EC 2000 – utilizing industrial expertise and experience with Quality-related processes to teach faculty about Quality, its importance and using Raytheon success stories to illustrate how it can lead to positive change. Although industry is more concerned with ISO 9000 and Sixsigma approaches to CQI, the principles are the same even if the vocabulary is different. Because their knowledge, experience, expertise, and confidence in what they were advocating were so credible, industry representatives were successful in making faculty appreciate the value Quality could bring to their academic processes. Year 1 and Year 2 Retreat and Mock Visit Activities – The UTEP Perspective College efforts to adopt EC 2000 needed a serious jumpstart. At a meeting of the College Industrial Advisory Group (IAG), discussions of accreditation-related issues made it apparent that nothing less than a college-wide initiative, involving faculty, staff and students, was necessary. Furthermore, discussions suggested that a two-year, two-step process should be put in place, starting with a college-wide retreat. The College of Engineering had not had a collegewide retreat and/or workshop in over 20 years. This alone, then, would be a monumental first step. Thus, the College began plans for an off-campus retreat that would take place during the late summer before classes began. Raytheon would provide facilitators experienced in Quality issues – focused on supporting College faculty and administrators in developing ABET-specific vision and mission statements and educational objectives –both for the college and for each individual program. Several meetings were held in anticipation of the retreat to delineate processes, outline operating procedures and define desires outcomes. At the end of this first retreat, the college and departments left with ABET action plans to work on over the year as preparation for the accreditation visit moved forward. Raytheon facilitators generated detailed documentation that included graphical illustrations and narrative overviews of the entire event including relationships between UTEP’s mission and the program’s educational objectives, between educational objectives and program outcomes, and between program outcomes and curriculum. The second step directly involving Raytheon was to have a second college-wide retreat one year later, which would be arranged as a mock ABET visit. The Raytheon Team, consisting of Raytheon personnel and academicians from other institutions, conducted a mock review utilizing EC 2000 criteria and an assessment of progress made on the goals identified the previous year. At the conclusion of the second retreat, the team presented their findings of strengths and P ge 6.086.2 “Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education” weaknesses for each program in much the same way an ABET visiting team leader would report to the president of a university being reviewed. That presentation was made to the entire group in a manner that was useful –with honesty and forthrightness. Again, the credibility of the outside team members allowed for a very straightforward approach to issues, which led to action plans focusing on ABET-related activities for each program. This process was well received by both the faculty and administration of the college and provided a focus to help grasp the objectives of EC 2000 in a way that could not have occurred using an insulated/internal self-study approach or a mock visit with feedback from other academics, exclusively. The corporate perspective, especially during the first workshop/retreat in 1999, was a very important driver for shifting faculty thinking from the old input-based ABET criteria to the new outcomes-/CQI-based EC 2000 model. Additionally, the mix of academics and Raytheon engineers during the mock review insured a balanced review – one where both the academic and industry perspectives would be accounted for. The realization that ABET EC 2000 and the corporate quality movement were closely aligned helped faculty accept the new criteria. Finally, industrial participants’ interaction with university faculty helped the industry representatives come to a deeper understanding of those issues currently relevant to engineering education. Year 1 and Year 2 Retreat and Mock Visit Pre-planning Activities--The Raytheon perspective In 1998, Raytheon Engineering University Relations concluded that assisting universities in their preparations for ABET accreditation would be one of their major thrusts and would represent a key element in their strategic planning. Thus, Raytheon developed a comprehensive approach to providing their strategic university partners the added support to have them adequately and effectively prepared for the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 Evaluation. Raytheon decided to utilize its Knowledge Center Southwest (KCSW) team to support the UTEP ABET EC 2000 Retreat Process. The KCSW team charter is to facilitate and conduct workshops to develop and improve Raytheon products using Total Quality Management; Six-Sigma Methodology; Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, Process Characterization, and other techniques. Moreover, the team had experience in auditing engineering and manufacturing processes. Also, KCSW personnel had assumed a leadership role in creating the Raytheon Arizona Governor Quality Award – an award of excellence in the same order as the Malcolm Baldridge Award. During the planning period, the Raytheon team developed an ABET EC 2000 Retreat/Workshop Process delineating eleven steps. Step 1 was to clearly identify the retreat goals, objectives and outcomes. In other words, how would success for the retreat be defined? – and what would be the expectations of various participants – the College Dean and administrators, faculty, students and the Raytheon KCSW team? To this end, Raytheon solicited the advice of key faculty in the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona [U of A]. U of A faculty had already undergone the formal ABET review and, thus, their insights would be invaluable. It was d