Examples of specific objectives for ABET outcomes

The examples below come from several teams participating in a workshop at the Best Assessment Processes in Engineering Education II, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, October 1998. The examples cover several objectives related to ABET outcomes and should be used only as examples. There is no official endorsement of these examples by any organization.

Document date: November 1998.

Ethics Objective

A recognition of ethical and professional responsibilities.
When given the opportunity, students will:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the code of ethics of the organizations of which they are members.
2. Evaluate the ethical dimensions of professional engineering, mathematical, and scientific practices.

Contemporary Issues Objective

An understanding of how contemporary issues shape and are shaped by mathematics, science, & engineering.
When applying the principles of mathematics, science, and/or engineering to a problem, students will:

1. Demonstrate an awareness of how the problem is affected by social concerns and trends.
2. Demonstrate an awareness of how the proposed solution(s) will affect culture and the environment.
3. Demonstrate an awareness of the reciprocal impacts of culture and the environment on technology.

Global Objective

An ability to recognize the role of professionals in the global society and to understand diverse cultural and humanistic traditions.
When given the opportunity, students will:

1. Perform, read, or otherwise engage in artistic, literary, and/or other expressive forms of culture.
2. Demonstrate an awareness of the historical development of culture, society, and their disciplines.
3. Show an awareness of the relationships of nations and the interdependence of peoples around the globe.
4. Acknowledge the valuable contributions of peoples from other cultures to their professions and personal lives.
5. Demonstrate an awareness of how their culture predisposes them to particular values and perspectives and of the pitfalls of ethnocentrism, racism, and sexism.
6. Show a willingness to examine, adapt, and adopt practices, methods, and ideas from perspectives very different from their own.

Teams Objective

An ability to work effectively in teams.
When assigned to teams, students will:

1. Share responsibilities and duties.
2. Take on different roles when applicable.
3. Analyze ideas objectively.
4. Discern feasible solutions.
5. Develop a strategy for action.
6. Resolve differences.

Communication Objective

An ability to communicate effectively in oral, written, graphical, and visual forms.
When given the opportunity, students will:

1. Identify the readers/audience for a communication task by assessing their technical knowledge and information needs
2. Provide technical content that is factually correct, supported with evidence, explained with sufficient detail, and properly documented.
3. Test readers/audience response to communication tasks to determine how well ideas have been relayed.
4. Organize and/or design information to meet readers/audience needs.
5. Submit work that is free of errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage.

Engineering Practices Objective

An ability to apply the skills and knowledge necessary for mathematical, scientific, and engineering practices.
When solving problems, students will:

1. Use appropriate resources to locate pertinent information.
2. Estimate outcomes.
3. Compare calculations to estimates to check for errors.
4. Develop criteria for the evaluation of proposed solutions.

Interpreting Data Objective

An ability to interpret graphical, numerical, and textual data.
When given the opportunity, students will:

1. Select appropriate self-explanatory graph formats for data presentation.
2. Summarize the graphical, numerical, and textual information in the form of a short abstract.
3. Use appropriate statistical procedures and interpret the results. Extract trends and demonstrate their importance from numerical data, graphs, and text.
4. Make a connection between the measured property and variables tested.

Experiments Objective

An ability to design and conduct experiments.
When given the opportunity, students will:

1. Identify the problem.
2. Develop an hypothesis.
3. Determine what data are appropriate to collect.
4. Select appropriate measurement techniques to collect data and justify that selection.
5. Specify and justify the assumptions made with the test conditions.
6. Estimate experimental uncertainties.
7. Collect data and present data in an accurate and orderly way, with proper units.

Design Objective

An ability to design a product or process to satisfy a client's needs subject to constraints.
When given the opportunity, students will:

1. Elicit customer needs and constraints.
2. Develop a product or process design specification which addresses appropriate issues (such as initial costs, operating costs, power, size, testability, reliability, serviceability, manufacturability, controllability, schedule, ergonomics, safety, and environmental issues).
3. Carry out a high-level product design by generating multiple solutions, which address the issues above, evaluating the feasibility of the solutions, and choosing the appropriate solution.
4. Carry out a detail-level product or process design using appropriate design tools and methodologies.
5. Test and refine the product or process implementation until the product or process design specifications are met or exceeded.
6. Document the finished product or process as appropriate for the discipline according to standard practice.
7. Present and transfer the product or process and documentation to the client.