Robert T. Balmer, dean of engineering and
computer science, attended a meeting of the Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
to develop learning objectives for engineering education
laboratories. About 40 engineering academics from around the
world developed the groundwork for defining the need for
laboratory training in engineering education. Attendees also came
from Lafayette, Swarthmore, Columbia, Drexel, MIT, Ohio State,
Northwestern, Notre Dame, and a number of University of
California institutions. Balmer has also been invited by the
Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) to participate in
an informational visit for deans of engineering to Germany in
early March. The group will visit the University of Bonn,
German Aerospace Center, University of Stuttgart, Daimler-Chrysler,
and the Technical Universities of Aachen, Karlsruhe,
Ilmena, Dresden, Munich, and Berlin. Union, with its
engineering foreign experience requirement, was the only small college
invited. Others were Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and
the Universities of Notre Dame, Florida, Arizona,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, California, and Toronto.