National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) won a civil lawsuit against a civil engineering candidate who attempted to take one of the organization’s primary exams with wireless a/v transmitter, video camera, receiver, pocket video recorder, and battery packs all on her person (see picture) with the intent to steal the content of the exam. She apparently had done this previously in 2005 but was caught by an alert proctor in the most recent incident. The federal court awarded NCEES a judgment of over a million dollars for loss of intellectual property. This figure was determined by estimating the cost that is involved in developing the items that had to be discarded. This individual was previously convicted of fraud in a criminal court for charges related to the incident.

I suspect that judgments of this type and size are rare but they do highlight the costs that can be involved in the development of sophisticated testing programs.

Reid Klion