ABET Self-Study Report Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
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ABET Self-Study Report for the Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering Program at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York Buffalo, New York 14260 July 1, 2020 CONFIDENTIAL The information supplied in this Self-Study Report is for the confidential use of ABET and its authorized agents and will not be disclosed without authorization of the institution concerned, except for summary data not identifiable to a specific institution. 1 E002 2020-2021 Self-Study Questionnaire TABLE OF CONTENTS BACKGROUND INFORMATION ............................................................................................................................ 3 CRITERION 1. STUDENTS...................................................................................................................................... 9 CRITERION 2. PROGRAM EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES .......................................................................... 35 CRITERION 3. STUDENT OUTCOMES ............................................................................................................. 40 CRITERION 4. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ............................................................................................. 42 CRITERION 5. CURRICULUM ............................................................................................................................ 71 CRITERION 6. FACULTY ..................................................................................................................................... 85 CRITERION 7. FACILITIES.................................................................................................................................. 99 CRITERION 8. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT ................................................................................................... 119 PROGRAM CRITERIA .......................................................................................................................................... 129 ACCREDITATION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL .................................................................... 131 APPENDIX A – COURSE SYLLABI .................................................................................................................... 133 APPENDIX B – CURRICULUM VITAE.............................................................................................................. 209 APPENDIX C – EQUIPMENT............................................................................................................................... 279 APPENDIX D – INSTITUTIONAL SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 281 APPENDIX E − POLICY DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................ E-1 to E-80 SUBMISSION ATTESTING TO COMPLIANCE ............................................................................................... 293 2 E002 2020-2021 Self-Study Questionnaire Program Self-Study Report for EAC of ABET Accreditation or Reaccreditation BACKGROUND INFORMATION A. Contact Information List name, mailing address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address for the primary pre-visit contact person for the program. Dr. Matthew Ringuette Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies – Aerospace Engineering Program Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 327 Jarvis Hall University at Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14260-4400 Phone: (716) 645-1461 Fax: (716) 645-2883 [email protected] B. Program History Include the year implemented and the date of the last general review. Summarize major program changes with an emphasis on changes occurring since the last general review. This Aerospace Engineering (AE) program at the University at Buffalo (UB) was founded in 1946 and last reviewed in 2014. During 2014 and 2015 two significant initiatives resulted in the modification of all programs within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). The revised programs became effective at the outset of the 2016-17 academic year. The first of these was the launch of SUNY Seamless Transfer, a policy introduced by the State University of New York (SUNY) system to improve student mobility between SUNY schools. The policy resulted in the following constraints on SEAS programs: • All engineering programs were restricted to 128 credit hours. This affected the AE program, which was 134 credit hours. • SUNY Seamless Transfer Paths (SSTP) were developed for nearly all disciplines within the SUNY system. SSTPs consist of a collection of courses that students are expected to complete during the first two years of study. These courses are expected to be either (a) generally available at community colleges or (b) available in an online format. During 2014, colleagues from across the SUNY system contributed to the 3 E002 2020-2021 Self-Study Questionnaire development of the SSTP for their discipline. The SUNY system then mandated that all programs align with the SSTPs by the 2016-17 academic year. In practice, SEAS programs were required to include all SSTP courses as required courses within their program and schedule these courses within the first two years of study. Moreover, programs needed to show that a student who transferred to UB with the SSTP complete was able to graduate with two additional years of study at UB. The SSTP for the AE program is included in Appendix E. The second initiative results from an extensive review of the University at Buffalo’s general education requirements. After consideration, discussion, reflection, and analysis, the revised program, termed the UB Curriculum, was launched at the outset of the 2016-17 academic year. This revision resulted in the following changes for SEAS programs: • The communication literacy requirement was changed from two 3-credit courses taught by the English department to one 4-credit course taught by the English department and a second 3-credit course delivered by the discipline. The switch to this “writing in the discipline” approach was a welcome change from the perspective of SEAS. As a result of this, SEAS developed a 3-credit course, EAS 360, that focuses on technical writing and professional communication and is delivered by faculty within SEAS. This course is now a degree requirement for all SEAS programs. The course is designed to support communication-intensive courses, such as laboratory and capstone courses, within SEAS. • Five courses within the humanities, civilizations, arts, and social sciences areas were replaced by thematic and global pathways. Formally, each pathway consists of three 3-credit courses. However, SEAS students are able to select pathway courses such that one of the pathway courses aligns with the major. Therefore, the pathway requirement results in four additional courses outside their major (students are still required to take courses in the humanities, civilizations, arts, and social sciences) for a typical SEAS student. Also note that one of these four courses must be selected from a pool of Diversity Learning courses to satisfy UB Curriculum requirements in an efficient manner. The switch to this “pathways” approach was also a welcome change from the perspective of SEAS. Within the old system, three of the five courses were prescribed by the university. While more complex in nature, the new system affords considerable flexibility for students to explore topics that they are interested in. • A 1-credit general education capstone course, UBC 399, was added as a requirement. Within this course, students are expected to produce an e-Portfolio that integrates the knowledge and experiences from their UB Curriculum courses into a meaningful, cross-disciplinary body of knowledge. Students are required to complete multiple reflective essays that bring together topics studied within the thematic and global pathways. Collectively, these changes resulted in a 1-credit reduction in the credit-hour load associated with the UB General Education program. 4 E002 2020-2021 Self-Study Questionnaire Further changes introduced into the curriculum, which also served to reduce it by the 5 additional credits needed to satisfy the total of 128 for SUNY Seamless Transfer, include the following, where MAE indicates Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering: • MAE 177 – Introduction to Engineering Drawing and CAD: Previously this was 2 credits and taught using 2-D AutoCAD, which was deemed obsolete. Solidworks, a popular 3-D solid-modeling software, was selected, and the course was shifted to 1 credit and moved online using a series of self-guided tutorials; the 1-credit reduction aided in attaining the SUNY Seamless Transfer goal. Students now learn the basic process of building a solid model while generating technical drawings. Exams are also given to reinforce the tutorial content and ensure individual comprehension. • MAE 339 – Aerospace Engineering Laboratory: Previously, the aerodynamics laboratory was a smaller component of MAE 424 Aerodynamics (see below), which limited the number and depth of experiments students could perform. To enhance the laboratory experience, a new 2-credit senior-year laboratory course, MAE 339, was created that replaced the 2-credit MAE 338 (MAE Lab II, Fluid Mechanics & Heat Transfer Lab). The MAE 339 lab consists of expanded wind tunnel experiments, new water-channel dye visualization experiments, a terminal-velocity object-drop experiment to find the drag coefficient, and a heat-conduction experiment using thermal imaging. Aerospace Engineering majors