2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

High-quality engineering and engineering technology education is essential to the continued and increasing success of our current and future technological society. Existing and emerging industries need both engineers and engineering technologists to design and develop future innovations.

One large, mid-Atlantic, R1 institution has created an engineering technology program within their existing engineering college to capitalize on the synergies the college provides and the new program. Student support services, including advising, tutoring, and career exploration and preparation opportunities are provided to all students within the College. Additionally, the College hosts approximately 100 student organizations and student competition teams that will welcome the engineering technology students. The engineering technology students bring specific skills that many engineering students do not have, so the teams become stronger through the collaboration. Since engineers and engineering technologists work together in a variety of roles within industry, providing collaborative opportunities to developing engineers and engineering technologists will help these students hone their collaboration skills and better prepare them for their future careers.

While the College’s seven departments are divided by “engineering field” and represent 13 distinct undergraduate majors, the B.S. Engineering Technology degree is intentionally designed to be flexible with multiple interdisciplinary opportunities. The B.S. Engineering Technology degree consists of a manufacturing-focused engineering technology core plus two Areas of Emphasis, selected from a current list of five Areas of Emphasis. Students have significant flexibility within this general program to focus their education toward specific technology and career goals.

Because of the diverse opportunities the five Areas of Emphasis provide, the program includes several courses outside the engineering college. Specifically, courses from natural resources, design, business, and arts and sciences comprise significant portions of the Areas of Emphasis coursework. The goal of the program is to provide flexibility to match individual student goals while providing industry with well-prepared and equipped graduates who can “hit the ground running” upon hiring.

This paper presents the process and outcomes of research related to the creation of this new engineering technology program. It presents the reasoning behind the unique structure, address the challenges of implementation, and their (to-date) resolutions. The goal of this presentation is to inform and encourage other engineering educational institutions to consider this path and to be prepared for the process.