The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology has adopted a revised set of accreditation criteria that is designed to assure that graduates of accredited programs are prepared to enter the practice of engineering. The proposal also specifies that engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have an understanding of professional practice issues in addition to the ability to design civil engineering projects by taking various realistic constraints under consideration. The findings of this study indicate that engineering undergraduate and graduate students as well as practitioners perceive that three constraints that represent the traditional technical aspect of engineering are of great importance for design projects. They include engineering codes and standards, economic factors, and manufacturability (constructability). In contrast, two constraints received lower ratings. They include social ramifications and political factors. Overall, 60% of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology recommended design constraints are rated by students and practitioners with a composite score ⩾ 3.0. This may be interpreted as strong support for the Engineering Criteria 2000 design requirements.

The master's degree is essentially the entry-level degree for those wanting to practice environmental engineering. Although the BS/MSCE (environmental emphasis) path produces graduates in high demand by employers, certain parts of the environmental engineering discipline demand graduates with a more specialized degree program. In response to the need for a specialized, or “professional,” degree program, Texas Tech offers an alternative to the traditional path to becoming an environmental engineer: the Master of Environmental Engineering (MEnvE) degree. The courses in the curriculum (EnvE course numbers) are taught by either civil or chemical engineering faculty. The MEnvE degree is a five-year “freshman-to-master's degree” program. The BS/MSCE (environmental emphasis) degree program and the MEnvE program essentially require the same number of credit hours and many of the same courses. One principal difference between the two programs is that the BS/MSCE path provides graduates with a broader civil engineering or chemical engineering background while the MEnvE program provides graduates with more concentrated preparation in biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, and environmental engineering. A second principal difference is that MEnvE graduates are focused on environmental engineering design. Thus, the MEnvE degree program is referred to as a professional degree program since graduates from the program typically enter professional practice rather than continue for a PhD degree.

A model for evaluating engineering student performance using the fundamentals of engineering (FE) examination has been developed. A database of FE examination data over several years and for more than 50 universities provides the basis for model development. FE examination data are presented in several forms to evaluate engineering student performance. First, a comparison of performance by discipline [e.g., mechanical engineer (ME) and civil engineer (CE)] in individual subject areas (e.g., dynamics, fluid mechanics, engineering economy) relative to the national average in those subject areas provides performance information for individual universities. Second, a measure, called the Tarquin number, has been developed that is used to compare “best-in-class” and “worst-in-class” performers by discipline and in individual subject areas both within and across institutions. The Tarquin number controls student population bias and can thus be effectively used. To evaluate engineering student performance, a weighted Tarquin number, which is an average of individual Tarquin numbers for each sub-ject area weighted by the number of students taking the particular examination, has been developed. For a series of “test cases,” model validation is based on plausible explanations for the identified performance (either best-inclass or worst-in-class). More quantitative validation will be provided as universities become partners in the study.

The paper outlines a project to incorporate digital images and the world wide web into the teaching of structural design for buildings, using an approach that is both highly visual and theoretically rigorous. A key objective of the project is to reach students how to understand a structure through visual critical analysis, applying hypotheses based on structural principles to explain phenomena and features visible in photographs of structures that are complete, under construction, or damaged. The project takes advantage of the special characteristics of digital images in conveying structural concepts—including the use of digital enhancement, annotation, and manipulation to clarify phenomena—and conceptually links them to physical and mathematical principles. In addition, the project uses the world wide web to make photographs available outside the classroom, enabling image-based homework assignments. The web is also used to collect and review input from students. The paper finds that, although they can be used independently, the applications of digital imaging and the applications of the web are particularly powerful in combination.