...
| Time | Item | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Approve minutes from April 26, 2016 | Makela | |
| Committee Charge | Sanders | |
Other Committee Logistical Information
| Makela | |
For next week:
|
Minutes
- Called to order at 2:03pm.
- Minutes from April 26, 2016 were approved.
- Sanders provided statistics regarding the department's student body and course enrollments.
- Most core courses are being offered in multiple sections, each with <= 100 students. There are exceptions, when the structure of the course may not require the smaller sections (i.e., ECE 385). Other courses (i.e., ECE 391) continue to be taught in large sections but Lumetta and Iyer suggested they would benefit from smaller sections and/or involvement of more faculty.
- Most core courses (ECE 110, 120, 210, 220) now have a designated "course coordinator" in addition to the "course director". The coordinator role works to ensure the course runs smoothly in a given semester and coordinates between multiple sections/instructors.
- The undergraduate population has increased over last year, through a combination of new first-year admits and transfer students. EE and CE represent the second and third largest first-year classes in the college. This indicates that the education we provide is being sought out by students.
- Sanders pointed out that ABET is modifying criteria used in evaluation of curricula. Our department will undergo evaluation in about 3 years and we need to make sure our course goals and instructional outcomes are modified to match the new criteria.
- Sanders suggested that the curriculum committee consider whether our curriculum provides sufficient electives, especially in light of the increased enrollments and new M.Eng. program.
- Kudeki suggested that it might be time to reexamine the acceptance criteria for transfer students.
- Kudeki brought up the discussion from last year's committee about making course material across the curriculum available to all of our faculty. He suggested that this should be a topic of discussion and a recommendation from the committee should be made.
- Hajek asked how the integration of CE students into ECE 445 was progressing. Makela described that the ECE 445 course staff were encouraging "hybrid" projects consisting of EE and CE students, all of which include some significant hardware design. He stated it was still unclear what the exact requirements for an acceptable CE-only project should be and that more input from CE faculty was needed.
- Kudeki asked for feedback on requirements for allowing students to pursue senior thesis, specifically if a GPA requirement of 3.25 was sufficient. The ensuing discussion suggested there was lack of clarity in terms of what additional requirements on the student were applicable (i.e., when do they need to complete the "special circuit"?). This will be a topic of future discussions of the committee.
- Adjourned at 2:52pm.