Celebrating New Accreditations - Richard J. Puerzer, PhD

Celebrating New Accreditations Richard J. Puerzer, PhD (Industrial Engineering) Department of Engineering Chairperson and Associate Professor Richard.J.Puerzer@hofstra.edu When I began my career at Hofstra in 1996, I succeeded Professor Phil Panzeca as the sole Industrial Engineering faculty member in the Engineering Department. Over the years I have had the pleasure of teaching and advising a great many students majoring in industrial engineering, and seeing them go on to great success in their careers for companies on Long Island and around the world. However, because for the majority of this time I was the only faculty member in Industrial Engineering, we were not able to seek ABET accreditation for the Industrial Engineering program. With the creation of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2012, later named for Fred DeMatteis, we made a goal of increasing the number of full-time faculty members in the Industrial Engineering program and eventually seeking ABET accreditation. In recent years, Drs. Salvador Rojas-Murillo and Brian Galli joined the faculty, expanding not just the number of Industrial Engineering faculty but also the areas of expertise we cover in our curriculum in our broad and expanding field. And now, we have achieved this goal. I am pleased to report that as of September 1, 2021, the Industrial Engineering program here at Hofstra is an ABET-accredited program.

I am also pleased to report that our relatively new Bachelor of Science degree programs in Bioengineering and Civil Engineering are also ABET-accredited. These two programs, that had been taught as a part of the BE Engineering Science program, which itself has been ABET-accredited since 1971, now have their own specific identity as we move forth in recruiting and educating engineering students in the future. With the addition of these three new accreditations, the Engineering Department has six ABETaccredited engineering degree programs: BS Bioengineering, BS Civil Engineering, BS Electrical Engineering, BE Engineering Science, BS Industrial Engineering, and BS Mechanical Engineering. These accreditations demonstrate the commitment that Hofstra University has to industry-recognized, high-quality education in engineering.

Another great bit of news for the Engineering Department is that we have added a new faculty member. Dr. Andy Borum, who earned a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018 and recently completed work as an NSF Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University, has joined the faculty. We welcome Dr. Borum and look forward to having him teach Dynamics and the Materials Laboratory in the Fall semester, and sharing his knowledge and expertise with our students for years to come.

The addition of these new accreditations and the hiring of Dr. Borum are examples of the many reasons that the DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science is ranked in the top 15% of non-PhD granting engineering schools in the US. We continue to strive to provide a multitude of learning opportunities in and out of the classroom, and deliver the highest quality engineering education to our students.