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Attendees: Basar, Belabbas, Dallesasse, Hajek, Kudeki, Kumar, Levinson, Mitra, Oelze, Schmitz, and guests: Sarah Robinson, John D'Angelo, Jont Allen
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3. The bulk of the meeting was spent on a discussion of undergraduate mathematics courses. There is considerable interest among the ECE faculty in having students gain basic proficiency with the three topics: complex functions, linear algebra, and vector calculus, by around the time they get to ECE 210. (Currently, the differential equations course, Math 286, is a co-requisite of ECE 210.) While the course ECE 493 covers these topics, it comes too late. John suggested that a possible place to introduce ECE/Engineering students to these topics would be in Calc II. He mentioned a vision of the three semester calculus sequence is that Calc I covers functions of one variable, Calc II covers functionsof functions of two variables (including some complex analysis and 2x2 matrix algebra), and Calc III covers three or more dimensions.
There seemed to be a consensus that it is worth investigating the possibility of having a two semester sequence (Calc II plus III) for ECE/Engineering students along the above lines, and with a strengthening of the concepts of complex functions and linear algebra, and getting into Fourier series, in Math 286 (Differential Equations Plus). Illinois has an opportunity to play a leadership role in leading mathematics education for engineers out from under the shadow of the Stewart version of calculus prevalent across the USA.
With enough background in linear algebra from this sequence, it may would be possible to streamline the treatment of circuit equations in ECE 210to utilize, in ECE 210, standard matrix methods to solve the linear circuit equations constructed using the KLV and KCL circuit laws, as advocated by some faculty members in the signal processing area.
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