Northwest Nazarene University received official notification from the international Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology that its new Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree program is accredited. This is the culmination of an intense five-year process of program building, growth, assessment, and evaluation to meet ABET’s rigorous standards.

“This ABET ‘stamp of approval’ ensures that the education offered in our NNU engineering program meets the international measure of high quality and that NNU’s graduates are well prepared to serve at the forefront of the engineering both here in the Valley and around the globe,” said Stephen Parke, NNU engineering program director.

Community, students, alumni, faculty/staff, and local media are invited to an ABET accreditation celebration event on Monday, August 31 on NNU's campus. The ceremony will begin at noon on the campus quad in front of the Thomas Family Health and Science Center. Several engineering industry leaders, including Micron CEO Mark Durcan and Jim Nottingham, vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard Imaging and Printing Group, will speak, highlighting the importance of growing engineering and technology education in the region.

Immediately following the ceremony, from 12:30 to 1 p.m., there will be a technology showcase and networking time inside the first-floor atrium of the Thomas Center, where guests can interact with NNU’s engineering students and faculty and view current design and research projects, including agricultural drones and NASA RockSat and CubeSat projects.

NNU has a 60-year history of providing quality engineering physics education, started in 1955 by Manhattan Project scientist Gilbert Ford. The department has more than 300 alumni pioneering in science and engineering fields around the globe. The NNU Bachelor of Science in Engineering program has 85 students enrolled with six faculty and two staff. It already has 18 graduates whose degrees will be grandfathered into the newly accredited status. It is a multidisciplinary program focusing on broad engineering fundamentals and liberal arts, and includes a choice of upper-division concentrations in electrical, mechanical, and engineering physics.

“The program has been well established and doing a phenomenal job training its students to think critically as real engineers with a humanitarian and ethical base," said John Lonai, a 2015 engineering graduate. "The fact that this is finally coming to fruition is really awesome. It means that the graduates will finally be getting the recognition they deserve.”

ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that is an internationally recognized accreditor of college and university programs, specializing in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. ABET allows secondary education programs to better reflect current and future industry needs by guiding the educational process through evaluations developed by ABET members. According to the ABET website, those involved with NNU can rest assured that graduates from an ABET-accredited program have a solid educational foundation and are capable of leading the way in innovation, emerging technologies, and anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public.

--Northwest Nazarene University