B.1Program Criteria
The programmatic requirements for Computer Engineering require both breadth and depth across computer engineering topics. In section B.4, Professional Component, we covered the major curriculum components of the Computer Engineering program. The last four of those components cover the breadth and depth requirements. They are items D, E, F, and G in Appendix I.D, Attachment 5, which shows the typical four-year Computer Engineering model program. We refer to these below by those four letters.
The breadth requirement is satisfied by the Computer Science component (nineteen quarter hours, item D) which shows the overlap between the software/programming principles and design concepts. It covers programming, data structures and the social implications of computing. Also providing breadth is the Engineering Science and related engineering courses component, which includes thirty-one quarter hours (item F) of classroom courses and laboratories in statics and dynamics, circuit analysis, linear systems, electronic devices, and technical communications. Initially, the student is presented with an introductory programming sequence oriented to problem solving with C++. After the initial course in this sequence the student is ready to continue his/her programming experience and also adventure into the world of hardware via combinational and sequential circuit and assembly language programming. Simultaneously the student is being introduced to calculus, the humanities and physics. Part of the breadth comes also from basic engineering science courses in statics and dynamics and electrical engineering, which are required of all Computer Engineering students. This includes eight quarter hours of mechanics and twenty of circuits, linear systems, and electronic devices. Additionally, a course oriented to technical communications (EGR 335) is included in this component of technical breadth.
With regard to depth, the courses directly oriented to Computer Engineering, involving thirty-two credit hours (item E), are at the heart of the professional competence of the BSCE graduates. They include a strong hardware and design component in the combinational and sequential switching circuits courses, computer organization and assembly language programming, digital systems design, operating systems, concurrency, synchronization and parallelism, networking, integration of hardware and software in a system design methodology, and software engineering. Additionally, the depth requirement is satisfied with the selection of one of four Computer Engineering elective packages (item G). This requirement is that all sixteen quarter hours of electives be chosen within one (and only one) of four areas: 1) Computer Architecture, 2) Software Systems, 3) Control Systems, and 4) Communication Systems. At least four quarter hours in each of these packages must be selected for a summative design-oriented course, either CEG 498, Design Experience, or CEG 499, Design Clinic.
Three additional programmatic requirements expected of Computer Engineering, are:
(CE1) Knowledge of probability and statistics, including applications appropriate to the computer engineering program and objectives: Such material is covered in a required course, ISE 301 or STT 363, in the Computer Engineering program, and used in other required (e.g., CEG 402, Computer Communication Design) or elective courses (e. g., CS 470, Computer Simulation in CEG Elective Package Software, and particularly in Packages Control and package Communications) in the program. Probability and statistics are also used in projects in CEG 498, Design Experience, as appropriate to the project, as for example in projects involving data compression or web searching where statistics on the symbols were collected and then probabilities used for encoding or searching.
(CE2) Knowledge of mathematics through differential and integral calculus, basic sciences, and engineering sciences necessary to analyze and design complex devices and systems containing hardware and software components, as appropriate to program objectives: this material is covered in the mathematics requirements, physics, and chemistry, required courses in computer engineering, in other required engineering course (ME or EE courses in item F), and in elective computer engineering specialization packages (item G) in the program. The science and engineering courses are shown under items A, B, C, and F, in the model curriculum shown in Appendix I.D, Attachment 5. The general hardware and software related courses are in items D and E.
(CE3) Knowledge of discrete mathematics: this material is covered in MTH 257, Discrete Mathematics, a required course.
The Computer Engineering program fully satisfies, in our opinion, Criterion 8 of the ABET requirements.