May 6, 2014, Minutes of the Curriculum Committee Meeting

ECE Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes for May 6, 2014

Members AY 2013-14:  Tangul Basar, Mohamed Ali Belabbas, Deming Chen, John Dallesasse, Alejandro Dominguez-Garcia, Bruce Hajek (Chair), Pavan Kumar Hanumolu, Erhan Kudeki (Ex-Officio), Rakesh Kumar, Stephen Levinson, Daniel Liberzon, Yi Lu, Steven Lumetta, Jonathan Makela, Sayan Mitra, Michael Oelze, Maxim Raginsky, Elyse Rosenbaum, William Sanders (Ex-Officio), Chris Schmitz, Paris Smaragdis, Venu Veeravalli, Daniel Wasserman, Hao Zhu

Attendees: Chen,  Dallesasse, Dominguez-Garcia, Hajek, Kudeki, Kumar, Lumetta, Oelze, Raginsky, Sanders, Schmitz, and Zhu.

1. The minutes of April 29 were approved as corrected

2. A majority of the meeting was spent on examining and  discussing the course CS 498 DAF Probability in Computer Science.  The course was offered Fall 2013 and will be offered Fall 2014.   The committee took a tour through the notes, the problem sets, final project document, the midterm exam, and practice problems for the final exam.

 A question that prompted the examination and discussion is whether the course should be accepted as satisfying the probability/statistics requirement of our undergraduate curricula in computer engineering or electrical engineering.    At the end of this discussion, a vote on the question was called for, and the outcome of the vote was negative.

[Here is a brief summary of the observations, and explanation for the outcome, as perceived by the committee chair.  The course CS 498 DAF is more data oriented than ECE 313 or Stat 410.  The course notes include coverage of methods of linear algebra such as eigenvalues and singular value decomposition, and their relation to principal components analysis (PCA) and convex optimization methods such as the lasso method for sparse regression analysis.   The k-means method of clustering is considered, as well as n-dimensional joint Gaussian distributions.   The course final project and homework offer students a chance to use tools of statistical analysis on data that the students themselves are asked to collect.     The notes don't go into much depth working with continuous probability distributions, such as working with marginal and conditional densities, working with exponentially distributed random variables, or considering distributions of functions of random variables.   The homework and exams cover little of the inner workings of the statistical analysis algorithms.   While many members of the committee appreciate the importance of the data analysis methods, and the quality of presentation in the notes is high,  the level of understanding required of the students in the course, as indicated by the homework, final project, and exams, did not seem sufficiently high to warrant approval.]

3.  As this is the final meeting of the semester (and the 22nd meeting of the academic year) the committee reviewed the list of items for the committee to address next year.  Here is the list:

a. [Design experience for undergraduates] As the new Computer Engineering curriculum is phased in, the curriculum committee should help ensure that an appropriate capstone design experience is provided for all students.  This entails in part an adjustment of ECE 445 to accommodate an expected increase in enrollment by Computer Engineers (Rakesh Kumar, in cooperation with existing instructors, is taking the lead in this direction.)  Another aspect is to examine the experience students receive in the other ways they can satisfy the design elective: currently ECE 411 OR  ECE 496+499.  ABET recommends inclusion of the following elements: (1) Real-life realistic constraints being considered in design decisions; (2) Assuring that team work is really exercised in all stages of design projects including concept development, design decisions, implementation, and presentation; (3) Project report refers to element (1) as well as societal and/or ethical issues that may be relevant; (4) An assessment procedure to ensure that above objectives are fulfilled.

b. [Modality of entry level ECE courses] As the new undergraduate curricula roll out, the student experience in the entry level courses, ECE 110, 120, 210, 220, should be closely scrutinized.   What is the ideal modality for each course (e.g. multiple smaller sections  or one large lecture per week and multiple discussion sections)?    The Department stands committed to providing whatever resources are needed to support these courses.

c. [Grade distribution in ECE courses]  The curriculum committee should examine the distribution of grades assigned in undergraduate courses, to determine if they are roughly uniform and reasonable.   If a problem  is perceived the committee should propose how to address it.    It may prove helpful to distribute some statistics to course instructors about the norms in the department.

d. [Enrollment caps]  The Curriculum committee should examine the undergraduate enrollment numbers with an eye towards recommending possible adjustment of the enrollment cap.

e. [Unofficial focus areas]  The ECE advising website includes pages for unofficial focus areas.  The links are the orange boxes to the right of the x of y portion of the curriculum diagram. These pages include suggested choices of x of y courses and technical electives for students with different focuses. These links are due for examination and update, including possible changes in the titles.

f. [Scientific computing basics]  Adequacy/appropriateness/specifics of the requirement for scientific computing basics, represented by a freestanding box in the curriculum diagram should be evaluated.

g. [Calc II & III for ECE/Engineering students] (See minutes of April 29 meeting.)

h. [Plans for continuation of course on Big Data; more generally, changes to the lineup of elective courses]

i. Report back from committee of Erhan Kudeki et al following up on  this committees report on improvement of PHYS213-214.

j. [Outgoing surveys] Examine employment/graduate school survey of outgoing students,

k. [Improve instructional methods]

The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 pm.

These minutes drafted by B. Hajek, May 6, 2014.