The BE curriculum is undergoing a slight modification and the changes are applicable to all emphasis areas.
August 18, 2008
The main purpose of the change is to make the curriculum more compliant to the requirements of ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). The number of credit hours for the capstone courses (senior design courses) have been increased from a total of 4 hours to a total of 6 hours. In order to achieve this and at the same time keeping the total number of hours required for the degree the same, a one credit hour of Engineering Seminar (ABE4911) has been added into the curriculum and Public Speaking (speech) is dropped from the curriculum because it is now an element of the senior technical writing course (GE 3513). In addition to this, Thermo Dynamics (ME 3533) is now made a technical elective to enable students to choose from a selection of technical electives that will better suite their carrier paths. The following are guidelines for students to follow:
- Students that will graduate on or before May 2009 will follow the old curriculum but will be able to substitute Thermo (if they haven’t already taken it) with PH 2233 Physics III, EG 1143 Graphic Communication or MA 4543 Intro to Mathematical Statistics. They will still take ABE 4122 and ABE 4812 and will not be required to take Senior Engineering Seminar.
- Students that will graduate after May 2009 will automatically follow the new curriculum and will take two 3 hour classes of senior design, which will replace ABE 4812 and ABE 4122, a restricted engineering elective (either ME 3533 Thermodynamics, PH 2233 Physics III, EG1143 Graphic Communication or MA 4543 Intro to Mathematical Statistics) and ABE 4911 Engineering Seminar. If you have already taken CO 1003 Public Speaking it will not count towards your degree; however, if you wish to apply Public Speaking to your degree you may opt out of the new curriculum and follow the old curriculum but this means that you will have to take ME 3533 Thermodynamics. Public Speaking can not be used as a technical elective.
- Any student that takes public speaking during or after fall 2008 will be considered to be on the old curriculum and will have to take thermo, no exceptions.
As the results of these changes, the Engineering Design (Senior Design) courses will be renumbered to reflect the number of credit hours they carry. This is in the process, so the new curriculum flow chart will not become available until the process of obtaining new course numbers is complete.
If you have questions regarding these changes, please contact your academic advisor.