Statewide endorsement of design in Washington

The statewide organization of engineering programs in Washington, Washington Council for Engineering and Related Technical Education (WCERTE) has endorsed the incorporation of design education into the first two years of engineering and engineering technology curricula. This design education includes the development of competence in communication, teamwork and the creative problem solving or engineering design process. Each institution is to determine for itself in which class or classes the desired educational outcomes for design education are to be achieved. This paper discusses the categories of competencies for design and to what level each competency is to be achieved by the end of the first two years of the program. It also discusses how faculty from a variety of institutions helped to define the competencies and levels of achievement which have been accepted. The endorsement will help to ensure that students who transfer within the state will enter the junior year with some design background upon which to build additional competence in the final two years of their engineering program. The effort to seek the endorsement was led by the PI's for the Transferable Integrated Design Engineering Education (TIDEE) project which is funded by NSF, Division of Undergraduate Education.