Among the requirements for engineering programs, the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria for student outcomes require students to have the ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences, recognize ethical and professional responsibilities, function effectively on a team, and apply new knowledge. A review of literature for skills comprised within these ABET criteria determined 26 topics necessary for the entry-level and continued success of engineers. Nearly 500 companies and organizations rated the importance and proficiency of their recent entry-level engineers for these 26 identified soft (professional) skills. The findings suggest that although entry-level engineers have proficiency in all of these ABET required skills, the entry-level engineers were not meeting the level of importance expressed by the organization for 24 of these 26 skills. A specific ABET required skill, the ability to communicate effectively with diverse groups of people, has the greatest difference between the level of proficiency and the level of importance. Analysis of variance was conducted using each of the demographic variables to determine the effect sizes in the ratings of importance, proficiency, and the differences between importance and proficiency. These results were shared with industry members to confirm the relevance of the survey findings during the pandemic. This survey research has implications for any university engineering department where students are seeking entry-level engineering positions after graduation.

A vibrations and controls course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Mississippi State University was reorganized by implementing substantial laboratory experimentation. Team projects were designed and assigned to students asking them to develop vibration and control systems using knowledge and theories learned from lectures. Through those projects, students' problem-solving capacity, hands-on experience, and teamwork skills were fully developed. The developed vibration and control systems will be permanently integrated into the curriculum, based on which a series of lab sessions can be designed to reinforce the concepts and theories covered in lectures and gain practical experience to characterize vibration and control behavior of dynamic systems. Student feedback to a course evaluation questionnaire showed that the renovated course met the learning needs of students by addressing most course goals with respect to ABET learning outcomes. Dependence on costly textbook and role of open educational resources in this class were also discussed.

An improved course assessment questionnaire was designed and used as an assessment tool for evaluation of a design-based and team-oriented mechanical engineering senior design course. The student feedback to the evaluation questionnaire was collected and analyzed to gain a better understanding of how well this course met the learning needs of students and addressed the goal of developing their career skills, as well as its impact on Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology educational objectives, upon which a plan to improve this senior design course would be formulated. The designed assessment questionnaire is a good supplement tool to the regular student evaluation form as a means to gather more insightful and valuable information from students for this specially designed course, through which the additive value of the unique industry-tied and team-oriented education mode implemented in that course can be correctly evaluated.