DSC’s Engineering Technology earns prestigious accreditation

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept. 1, 2016) – Good news for Daytona State College engineering students and graduates: The national Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has formally granted accreditation to DSC's Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology (BSET) program and its Electronics Engineering Technology concentration through September 2022. The accreditation extends retroactively from October 2013, benefitting prior program graduates.

DSC is the only state college to join the 17 universities in Florida that have earned the prestigious ABET accreditation.

"Achieving national accreditation for our BSET program is a tremendous validation of the high-quality education we provide," said Daytona State President Tom LoBasso. "This benchmark is a testimony to the value and strength of our program and curriculum, as well as the dedication and professionalism of our engineering technology faculty."

Dr. Ron Eaglin, chair of DSC's School of Engineering, remarked, "This is a true milestone for our program, for Daytona State and for our BSET students and graduates. To earn ABET accreditation requires that the college meet a very stringent set of criteria." Many graduate programs worldwide will only accept students, and many employers will only consider hiring job applicants, who have graduated from an ABET-accredited institution, he said.

A team of ABET evaluators who conducted an on-site visit last November during the accreditation review process particularly noted the college's culture of continuous improvement and assessment that "starts with the college president and extends down the supervisory chain to the faculty."

ABET accreditation guarantees that graduates have met a specific skill set required for entry into the workforce or to further their education. Students who wish to become licensed professional engineers must graduate from an ABET-accredited institution.

Daytona State received permission to offer the BSET program from the Florida State Board of Education in 2010. Much of the program, including Eaglin and his fellow BSET faculty, came to DSC from the University of Central Florida, which closed its engineering technology program in 2009.

DSC's BSET program can be completed entirely online. In fact, U.S. News and World Report has ranked it among the top 10 online bachelor's programs in the nation for four years running.

The program prepares graduates for technical positions in the expanding fields of industrial operations, mechanical design and construction design. It uses a 2 + 2 model requiring students to complete an associate degree for entry into the program.

Last year, 95 percent of 2013-2014 BSET graduates were employed in their field, according to Florida Education Training Placement Information Program data. Graduates work in a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, medicine, environmental sciences, computer science, electronics and software development, manufacturing and construction - virtually any industry in which products are designed, developed or tested.

Daytona State is surrounded by a large number of small- to medium-sized technology companies such as Teledyne and Conlee, as well as regional employers like NASA, which hire BSET program graduates.

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