Last month, ABET and NCEES co-hosted the annual meeting of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) in Anchorage, Alaska. ABET was represented by our CEO Michael Milligan; his wife and ABET Expert, Alison Milligan; our senior manager of international relations, Daniela Iacona and members of our volunteer leadership, Wayne Bergstrom, Larry Jones, Jaime Rogers and David Holger. The meeting took place from June 18 to 23.
“The IEA Meeting was extremely successful this year. As co-hosts, we could not think of a better place to talk about the future of global engineering education than Alaska, where one can see not only natural beauty but also the impacts of climate change,” said Milligan.
As part of the program, Alison Milligan took a group of 46 guests on local tours, where they could experience not only the iconic wildlife but also witness the effects of climate change in that part of the world.
The IEA is an umbrella organization consisting of seven international agreements. ABET belongs to three: Washington (engineering), Sydney (engineering technology) and Dublin (engineering technologist) Accords, while NCEES is a signatory of the International Professional Engineers Agreement (IPEA) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agreement.
About 170 participants attended last month’s meeting. They represented programmatic accreditors and professional licensure/registration bodies of engineering and engineering technology in 27 countries. Guests from seven other countries were also invited as observers. David Holger, ABET Global Council Chair, was reelected for a second term as Chair of the Sydney Accord and Chair of the IEA Governing Group.
In addition to the IEA, ABET hosted the Seoul Accord General Meeting (SAGM), on June 24-25. The Seoul Accord is a multi-lateral agreement among agencies responsible for accreditation or recognition of tertiary-level computing and IT-related qualifications. This year’s meeting gathered approximately 35 delegates and observers representing computing and IT accrediting bodies in 12 countries. The Seoul Accord is also growing rapidly, with a membership that has more than doubled since its establishment in 2008.
For more information about ABET’s role in these international agreements please visit our Global Presence page.