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Accreditation
Joining the Gang
The Department of Computer Science Gains Professional Accreditation
August 25th, 2004
On August 23rd, 2004, the Department of Computer Science at IPFW received the following information: "The Computer Science Bachelor of Science program is accredited by the Computing Accrediting Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology [CAC/ABET], 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, MD 21202-4012 - telephone (410) 347-7700. We now join the group of about 200 accredited programs out of the 1000+ computer science programs nationwide. Other accredited programs include: MIT, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, University of Illinois, UCLA, University of California Berkeley, and all three service academies. We also join our sister engineering and engineering technology programs in the School of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science. Accreditation of Computer Science programs did not begin until 1985, about 50 years after accreditation for engineering and technology programs started in 1932.
The rationale for seeking such accreditation is to ensure our graduates AND society (employers, graduate schools, and our region) that the individuals who receive a B.S. in Computer Science are eminently qualified to contribute to the profession. This in no way is a reflection on the quality of the 500+ B.S. CS graduates of the IPFW program to date (out of the 1308 graduates since AAS degrees in CS were first awarded in 1967, and BS degrees in 1973). It just means that the department now meets all the required criteria from CAC: objectives and assessment, students, faculty, curriculum, laboratory and computing support, and institutional support.
Obtaining such status is a long and time-consuming effort on the part of the department and involves nearly every other organization on campus. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of our colleagues at IPFW ☺. Planning for this effort began in October, 2002. The official visit of the team occurred in October, 2003, and we filed our response to their draft report in April, 2004. We celebrated by posting this wonderful news on the departmental website. It will not be long until we also seek accreditation for the Information Systems B.S. degree ☺.
For more details on CAC, look at www.abet.org/cac1.html. For more details on ABET, please see www.abet.org. By the way, did you know that the Engineering Commission of ABET has accredited 1700 programs at 343 institutions and that the Engineering Technology Commission of ABET has accredited 679 programs at 226 institutions, as of October, 2003?
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