Engineering is not about whether someone "can code", but whether someone can _engineer solutions to problems_. Has this person demonstrated that through the projects he chooses to put on display (and advertise as signal for his ability) on Github?

This is also what a lot of those engineering interviews are trying to ascertain, in a quantitative manner. I couldn't care less about someone's degrees or ivy league schools or Github projects (in isolation). These are all secondary -if that- considerations, problem solving ability being primary.