2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In 2022, we developed a new engineering technology program, focusing on manufacturing technology and sustainable energy/transportation, converting an existing industrial technology program. This program was created in alignment with the ABET ETAC general criteria guidelines and received ABET accreditation in 2024. It was built on a foundational framework of differential and integral calculus, general education physics, and chemistry. Our program includes lower division courses in Automobile Technology, Machine Shop Technology, Computer Aided Design, Industrial Safety, and Electronics. The majority of our Engineering Technology lower division courses were Lecture plus Lab combinations, a feature that sets us apart from other programs.
We faced challenges in our new endeavor, as there were well-defined, articulated programs in engineering, and many of those courses would be redundant in our engineering technology program. Also, the Community College Engineering Technology programs we dealt with did not have ABET accreditation. Besides, many Technology programs at community colleges were geared to training technicians in a single career field with extensive coursework and minimal course transfer possibilities, such as programs to become an automobile technician or a machining technician. These programs require minimal mathematical skills, and upon transfer, students will lose many of the credits they earn at their Community Colleges. We had many conversations with our Community College partners, attended their Advisory Boards, and were able to develop articulated agreements for our unique engineering technology program. These agreements were developed through meetings and negotiations, where we addressed, among others, the question of “Can the students completing 60 semester credits at a junior college complete the Engineering Technology degree with an additional 60 units?”. This led to the development of transfer pathways that do not require completing an associate degree, as some of the courses in the associate degrees are not needed in our engineering technology program. The final paper will describe in detail these aspects and how we alleviate the challenges.