Minutes 11/14/2022

Date

Nov 7, 2022

Attendees

M.A. Belabbas, S. Bogdanov, X. Chen, Z. Cheng, P. Dragic, E. Kudeki, J. Kim, S. Lumetta, O. Mironenko,  U. Ravaioli.

Minutes

The committee started the meeting by considering the new course ECE 328 "Fields and Waves: Virtual Reality Laboratory" submitted by Raluca Ilie.  The course has been taught as the temporary offering ECE 398 RI for several semesters.  The committee had approved during the previous academic year the revision of an existing ECE 328 course by revising the syllabus to include the material in ECE 398 RI.  However, during the subsequent approval process, it was ruled that ECE 328 had not been taught for quite some time and therefore there should be a resubmission in the form of a new course request rather than a revision.  The committee approved with unanimous consent the new proposal which had already enjoyed strong support in the previous form.

The remainder of the meeting was spent discussing the steps needed at the midpoint between successive ABET reviews and the role of the ECE Curriculum commitee in reviewing the collected course material.  The wiki page developed by the ECE Department, at  https://wiki.illinois.edu/wiki/display/ECEABET, was examined to review the submission requests for course directors and for individual faculty.  A set of Powerpoint slides prepared by the Grainger College of Engineering was consulted to understand some of the major changes in store for the next ABET review.   Most of the discussion centered around the topic of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) which appears in Criterion 5 (curriculum requirements) and in Criterion 6 (program faculty).  Criterion 5 states at point d) that the curriculum must include: "content that ensures awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion for professional success consistent with the institution's mission."  Criterion 6 states that "The program faculty must also demonstrate knowledge of applicable institutional policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and demonstrate awareness appropriate to providing an equitable and inclusive environment for its students that respects the institution’s mission."  It was agreed by the committee members that, in order to address effectively these new aspects of the ABET criteria,  there should be coordination with the broader activities in the Grainger College of Engineering.  It was suggested to invite Prof. Lynford Goddard, ECE faculty and Associate Dean for DEI, at a future meeting of the curriculum committee.

UPDATE: Prof. Goddard was contacted by the chair about meeting with the curriculum committee.  The request spurred a broader conversation to initiate a college-level activity to inform and coordinate with all departments at the same time rather than holding separate conversations.  A college group attended a Big 10++ DEI ABET workshop in October and it appears that a timely starting point would be to organize first an event, possibly attended by curriculum committee chairs and undergraduate associate heads from each department, to discuss the changes to ABET and the October workshop outcomes and to help units begin their processes in a synchronous fashion.  Initial activities will likely be organized for December or January.