The curriculum goals of the unit, as currently stated in the catalog or other departmental documents, are as follows: (from the catalog)

As published in the 2011-2012 catalog:  “The department prepares its graduates to make significant contributions in many diverse areas.  Specifically, within three to five years its graduates will:

  • be recognized as academic and industrial leaders in a multitude of chemical and biological engineering or related fields
  • demonstrate the relevant technical, critical thinking, and problem solving skills and creativity required to solve challenging and open-ended problems
  • work and communicate with a diverse group of individuals in interdisciplinary areas
  • exhibit high ethical standards and moral responsibility necessary to safely protect public health and the environment and be knowledgeable of contemporary issues that face modern society
  • demonstrate an interest in and the pursuit of lifelong learning and possess the versatility necessary to adapt to a rapidly changing professional environment by applying their skills to new and developing technologies.”

It is important to note that in the fall of 2011, input from alumni surveys, the Undergraduate Education Advisory Council (UEAC), and faculty was used to create new objectives.  The approved objectives are as follows:

  • “The department prepares our graduates to make significant contributions in many diverse areas.  Specifically, within a few years of graduation our graduates will have achieved one or more of the following attributes:
  • In their chosen field, be established in a professional career, be pursuing an advanced degree, or be seeking advanced certification.
  • Be recognized as academic, industrial, or entrepreneurial leaders.
  • Be successfully working and communicating in a variety of technical fields.
  • Be adapting to new technologies and changing professional environments.”

In the analysis below, the old (as published in the 2011-2012 catalog) will be discussed and analyzed with respect to survey and exam data.

During the last review period, how has the department/program assessed how well it has accomplished its curriculum goals?

The Department has in place a process for evaluating to what extent the program goals are met.  The program relies on surveys of our alumni (Alumni Survey) as well as surveys of employers of our graduates (Employer Survey) and graduates post-graduation (Post-Grad Survey).  At the conclusion of each academic year, the Alumni Survey is sent to alumni who graduated roughly 4 years prior.  The Employer Survey is sent out in January of every third year; this was last administered during the spring semester of 2011.  In addition to the Alumni and Employer Surveys, the UEAC meets every spring and some of these members may have had experience working with graduates of our program, so this information is used as well.  The Undergraduate Committee compiles survey results and compares the results to the targets that were previously set.  In this way, the committee can identify areas of weaknesses and synthesize recommendations for the faculty.  Finally, changes are implemented to address these areas of weakness.                                                                                                             

  • Senior Survey (data from December 2011 and May 2012 graduates) – assessment of program outcomes
  • Post-Grad Survey (given to alumni about 6 months after graduation; data from May/Aug. 2011 and December 2011 available)
  • Employer Survey - A college-level Employer Survey was implemented for the first time in the spring of 2008 and most recently administered in the spring of 2011.  This survey was administered to employers of our graduates and these employers many times have worked with the employees for roughly 3-5 years.
  • Alumni Survey - Approximately 4 years after graduation from the ChBE program, alumni are asked questions that relate directly to attainment of the Program Educational Objectives.  NOTE:  Because the ChBE program’s first graduates matriculated in May of 2009, the first Alumni survey will be administered in the summer of 2013.  In this report, the ChE Alumni Survey results were used to draw some limited conclusions related to ChBE program goals.
  • Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam - The results of the FE exam are used to evaluate objectively how our students compare to other students nationwide in a variety of engineering areas and the exam also allows us to determine any deviations or changes in various topic areas over time.  In this analysis, scores from the October 2011 and April 2012 exams were evaluated.

What has the department/program concluded with respect to the outcomes of its undergraduate curriculum?

The department has concluded that the attainment of the curriculum outcomes is strong.  Most graduates (71%) of the ChBE program have jobs within 6-9 months and another 18% are in graduate school or medical school.  The remaining 11% are unemployed; however, within about 4 years, all of our graduates are employed (92% of them full time, 8% of them part time) or in graduate or medical school.  Interestingly, only 42% of graduates have jobs that are related to their major.  This demonstrates the utility of the ChBE degree and may indicate that our program prepares graduates to go into a wide variety of disciplines and fields.  Approximately a third of our graduates are supervising others within several years of working, indicating a potentially strong leadership ability.  About half of our graduates pursue an advanced degree or advanced certification within several years of graduation. 

Results from the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam indicate that there are several areas where our students are significantly underperforming the national chemical engineering cohort.  However, since the FE exam was taken by only five ChBE students for the first time in 2012, we do not yet have significant data to conclude that our program has deficiencies in these areas.  We will pay close attention to future performance on the FE Exam.  In contrast, our Employer Survey results indicate that our students perform very well in all most areas of relevance (see below).

With regards to the ABET outcomes a-k, the department has concluded the following:

  • In all areas except for one, the evaluations of ChBE graduates by employers met and in many places significantly and substantially exceeded the college average.  Some of the highest scores by employers were given in the following areas: ability to analyze and interpret data and ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.  In contrast, while our graduates still scored higher than the college average in most of these areas, many of the “soft skills” [outcomes (f), (g), (h), (i), and (j)] need improvement.  These are: an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility; the appropriate written and verbal communication skills required to communicate effectively; the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context; a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning; and a knowledge of contemporary issues. 
  • The knowledge of contemporary issues of our graduates was the worst-performing area evaluated by employers.  Only 40% of employers feel that our graduates are better at knowledge of contemporary issues than graduates from other colleges or universities.  This area is also significantly lower than the college average, indicating that the ChBE program needs to do a much better job in the area of current events and contemporary issues.

What changes in the curriculum or in major requirements have occurred as a result of your assessment of your undergraduate program?

Several changes in the curriculum have been made during the assessment period and are discussed below:

  • To improve understanding and knowledge of contemporary issues, students were assigned to do an informational interview with someone in their field of interest in the CHEN 4090 (Senior Seminar) course with an emphasis on contemporary issues.
  • Assessment results indicate that students have a difficult time writing technical reports.  In particular, they have a hard time with the Executive Summary.  Beginning in the fall of 2011 in the Senior Lab course (CHEN 4130), one of the 4 lab experiments was eliminated and two class periods were spent on tutorials and examples of good report writing style, especially focusing on the Executive Summary. 
  • Advising practices were improved tremendously during the 2010-2011 academic year as a result of a half-time staff advisor.  To further improve advising practices, the following were implemented:
  • A full time advisor was hired in the fall of 2011 who devotes much of her time to student advising.  This staff member holds regular open advising hours during the semester, attends college advising meetings, and is very knowledgeable of advising practices.
  • A senior-level audit was implemented.  This is conducted late in the semester prior to students' final semester before graduation to verify that they will be completing the requirements during their last semester.  We use our audit checklists to perform this and this process has identified for several students a course or two that still had to be taken for graduation.

There were no major changes in required courses during the assessment period.