Minutes 10/4/2021

Date

Oct 4, 2021

Attendees

A. Aggarwal, J. Allen, U.K. Bhowmik, S. Bogdanov, Z. Cheng, P. Dragic, N. Kani, J. Kim, E. Kudeki, K. Levchenko, S. Lumetta, A. Miller, T. Moon, U. Ravaioli, J. Schuh, P. Song, J. Zhou.

Minutes

In the first part of the meeting there was a discussion on the supporting role of the Curriculum Committee with respect to ABET reviews.  Erhan Kudeki provided information on the timelines involved and on the importance to document the discussions that take place at the meetings.  The discussion was particularly informative for newer faculty members who have not yet been involved closely with the ABET review.  One of the most important tasks for individual faculty members is to keep current the objectives of the courses for which they are course directors.  It was decided that later in the semester a letter should originate from the curriculum committee to remind faculty of the need to make any necessary update to such course materials, to keep the process of information gathering a smooth one for the Department in the near future.    

The rest of the meeting was a follow up conversation on the remote laboratory kits discussed at the prior meeting.  Several anecdotes were shared about interactions with students.  Jont Allen, in particular, recounted a recent chance conversation with a student who had indicated enthusiastic appreciation of having available the kits to engage with experimentation outside of required assignments.  This spurred a lively conversation on the added benefits of remote kits, since they enable students to undertake more personal exploration.  There was further discussion on how to realize efficiencies and savings by making kits multipurpose and suitable for reuse in multiple classes.  Another thought offered by Anu Aggarwal was that pedagogically the availability of kits before the in-person lab sessions may allow instructors to use the time in the lab on more challenging topics and assignments instead of more basic or mundane tasks and perhaps repetitive explanation.

From the discussion emerged the need to collect more information directly from the students.  It was suggested that Casey Smith should have available a list of all students who were provided with kits and therefore it should be possible to contact them directly.  The chair agreed to ask Casey if the information can be obtained.  The idea is to formulate a survey to collect from students specific impressions and feedback on the remote kits, to help the Department with the decision making process.