GVSU hosts hundreds of young learners at two STEAM events
Hundreds of middle and high school learners participated in competitions that would put their problem-solving and STEAM skills to the test.
Mar 25, 2024
The School of Engineering provides unique educational opportunities for students interested in engineering concepts and their practical application at both the undergraduate and masters levels. Our mission is to prepare students to assume engineering positions in industry with the potential to advance to leadership positions. All undergraduate programs are accredited by ABET.
All of our programs feature hands-on approaches to learning the dynamic discipline of engineering. All undergraduate majors participate in a three-semester co-op program where the student gains a year of full-time, paid experience in industry. Almost two-thirds of our courses have laboratory components and many include industry-sponsored projects. The bachelor’s degree programs culminate in interdisciplinary team-based projects, which are again, predominantly industry-sponsored.
Our graduate programs are flexible and designed to deepen your expertise, offering opportunities for both the working professional, and the student seeking a more traditional, full-time research-based experience. Engineering is a profession whose practitioners have values embodied in a creed and code of ethics.
The School of Engineering marked a major accreditation milestone, achieving reaccreditation of its baccalaureate programs in Computer, Electrical, Interdisciplinary, Mechanical, and Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering and an initial accreditation for its new Biomedical Engineering program. The 2022 accreditation decision received by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) states that all six undergraduate programs are accredited until September 30, 2029, with the Biomedical Engineering accreditation action retroactively extending from October 1, 2020, which coincides with the first cohort of students to graduate from the program.
For undergraduate engineering programs to earn initial accreditation or maintain existing accreditation, a program accreditation request must be followed with the development of detailed self-study reports and a rigorous and comprehensive on-campus accreditation visit by the ABET team, which is composed of university and industry volunteers. The on-campus visit includes an exhaustive review of the program's curriculum, processes (admission, enrollment, assessment, constituent feedback, student advising, continuous improvement, and career placement), faculty/staff credentials, professional development, facilities, and samples of graded student work. The student learning outcome feedback and continuous improvement loop is critical, and programs must provide written evidence that all constituents (faculty, staff, students, employers, and industry partners) are instrumental to the overall process. Programs must provide written evidence of student learning outcome attainment at the demonstrated mastery or proficiency achievement level. During the visit, the external accreditation team conducts interviews with administration, faculty, students, support units, and the university-level administration, including the president and provost.
The School of Engineering recognizes the comprehensive efforts of the entire faculty and staff in this momentous accreditation achievement and specifically acknowledges the efforts of the founding dean of the Padnos College of Engineering and Computing, Dr. Paul Plotkowski, for his lifetime legacy of building a community-engaged college. Additionally, the School of Engineering recognizes the efforts of the non-academic support units, particularly the career center, that are critical to the program's ongoing success, and joint collaborative efforts among other campus units (university assessment/accreditation, eLearning Technologies, and Blackboard/Anthology) for the development of an accreditation tool that provides granular assessment data and feedback and generates disaggregatged program reports that are critical to the external accreditation process.
A program’s accreditation action is based upon the findings summarized in the final statement, and the actions depend on the program’s range of compliance with the accreditation board’s criteria. The strength of compliance range can be construed from stated deficiencies, weaknesses, concerns, and observations. The final statement for all six engineering undergraduate engineering programs indicates that all accreditation criteria, policies, and procedures were satisfied, with no strength of compliance issues noted within the School of Engineering that would impact or compromise the quality of the program.
ABET accreditation provides evidence that the School of Engineering programs have met standards essential to produce graduates that are ready to enter the engineering profession, and that graduates from the program have a solid educational foundation, allowing them to become leaders in engineering innovation, emerging technologies, and public safety/welfare needs.
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