JOHNSON CITY — East Tennessee State University is the only institution in the Southeast and among seven nationwide to receive a 2019 Education Award from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).

ETSU’s Surveying and Mapping Science Program was awarded $15,000 to further its efforts to promote the importance and value of surveying licensure. Land surveying is a rapidly growing profession and licensed surveyors are in high demand across the country. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the employment of surveyors will grow 11% between 2016 and 2026. Most students in ETSU’s Surveying and Mapping Science Program have multiple job offers in the discipline at graduation.

The B.S. degree program is housed in ETSU’s Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology and Surveying within the College of Business and Technology. It is one of only 20 surveying programs in the U.S. accredited by ABET, the premier global accreditation agency for engineering technology and computing disciplines. ETSU offers many of the required surveying courses via distance education and students who complete the program may seek licensure in most states.

This is the second consecutive year ETSU was selected by a jury to receive the Education Award. NCEES presented ETSU with $10,000 in 2018. The jury considers criteria such as student outcomes and involvement, outreach and recruitment, and the promotion of licensure.

The 2018 NCEES Education Award was used to purchase hardware and software needed to create a new course on drones, noted Dr. Jinseok Hong, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology and Surveying.

“We are seeking to expand and restructure our program to deliver land surveying curriculum regionally and globally,” added Jared Wilson, assistant professor and program coordinator for ETSU’s Surveying and Mapping Science Program. “We have an excellent team, an outstanding advisory committee and an institution that is committed to seeing the program grow.”

The latest $15,000 award will be used to purchase new equipment, such as a terrestrial scanner, to keep pace with rapidly developing technology in the surveying profession, and go toward enhancing the current curriculum, Wilson said.

For more information about the Surveying and Mapping Science Program at ETSU, visit www.etsu.edu/cbat/applieddesign/surveying.php