Dr. Doug Talbert, chairperson of the Computer Science Department, commented “all involved are excited about this new era in our program. Countless hours have been spent to make this day possible. We have always been very proud of the quality of our program and the student experience our department has to offer; now that quality and commitment is nationally recognized!”

Accreditation is a voluntary, peer-review process that requires programs to undergo comprehensive, periodic evaluations. The evaluations, conducted by teams of volunteer professionals working in industry, government, academe, and private practice within the ABET disciplines, focus on program curricula, faculty, facilities, institutional support, and other important areas.

One of the key elements of ABET accreditation is the requirement that programs continuously improve the quality of education provided. As part of this continuous improvement requirement, programs set specific, measurable goals for their students and graduates, assess their success at reaching those goals, and improve their programs based on the results of their assessment.

In addition to providing colleges and universities a structured mechanism to assess, evaluate, and improve their programs, accreditation also helps students and their parents choose quality college programs, enables employers and graduate schools to recruit graduates they know are well-prepared, and is used by registration, licensure, and certification boards to screen applicants.

ABET is a not-for-profit organization, owned and operated by its more than 25 professional and technical member societies. An internationally respected organization with some 1,500 volunteers, ABET has set the higher-educational standards in its fields for nearly 75 years. More information about ABET, its member societies, and the evaluation criteria used to accredit programs can be found at www.abet.org.

Tennessee Tech is a public, co-educational and comprehensive university located in Cookeville, a town of about 25,000 residents.

Although it's located in some of Tennessee's most beautiful countryside, the campus is only a little more than an hour from three of the state's metro areas -- 82 miles east of Nashville, 109 miles west of Knoxville and 96 miles north of Chattanooga.

Tennessee Tech houses six strong academic divisions -- the College of Agricultural and Human Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, College of Education, College of Engineering, and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Extended Education.

With an enrollment of 10,321 and more than 50% of classes with 20 students or less, strong faculty/student relationships are a hallmark of a TTU educational experience. For more information about Tennessee Tech University’s bachelor’s degree program in computer science, visit http://www.csc.tntech.edu.