2016-11-03 Meeting Notes

Date

Not 3, 2016

Attendees

AY 2016-2017 Members: Michael Bailey, Can Bayram, Mohamed Ali Belabbas, Subhonmesh Bose, Weng Chew, John Dallesasse, Peter Dragic, James Eden, Liang Gao, Bruce Hajek, Pavan Kumar Hanumolu, Kiruba Haran, Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, Yih-Chun Hu, Seth Hutchinson, Ravishankar Iyer, Erhan Kudeki (Ex-Officio), Minjoo Lee, Stephen Levinson, Steven Lumetta, Jonathan Makela (Chair), Sanjay Patel, Maxim Raginsky, William Sanders (Ex-Officio), Christopher Schmitz, Jose Schutt-Aine, David Varodayan, Lara Waldrop, Zhizhen Zhao, Hao Zhu, Wenjuan Zhu

Discussion Items

Minutes

• Called to order at 2:03pm.
• Minutes from October 20, 2016 were approved.
• The committee discussed including CS 498 VR on the approved technical elective list.
  • Hutchinson pointed out that the course had been offered several times and asked if it was to become permanent at some point. Makela stated this was presumably the case, but was outside of our control and so we could only continue to consider the 498 as it is offered.
  • Hajek pointed out the technical and mathematical nature of the course. The committee also noted that the course text was new and written by Prof. LaValle. Varodayan noted the fairly low-level prerequisites, which is presumably an attempt to encourage a more cross-disciplinary enrollment in the course.
• The committee approved including CS 498: Virtual Reality on the approved technical elective list.
• The committee discussed including CS 498 AML on the approved technical elective list. NOTE: the provided link was not working and so the committee only had a brief description of the course to work from during this discussion.
  • A general discussion on pathways for students to learn about artificial intelligence and machine learning was had.  Current offerings include ECE 448/CS 440 (Introduction to Artificial Intelligence) and CS 446 (Machine Learning). Levinson pointed out the ECE 448/CS 440 was moving towards a more traditional approach to artificial intelligence. Iyer suggested that there is room in this domain for multiple courses, and that having more options can help students learn different perspectives. 
  • Hajek noted that the material cover was quite advanced and wondered at what depth it could be covered in a single course. Would the students learn the fundamental mathematical underpinnings of the different techniques being covered?
• Due to the lack of specific information, the committee decided not to vote on this course. Makela would approach the course instructor to attempt to gain more information. If successful, he will send the information to the committee for consideration and hold an email vote.
• Upon request, Makela summarized the voting on INFO 480RB2 and NPRE 498, which were both approved for inclusion on the technical elective list via email voting.
• A general discussion on the sub disciplines presented on the ECE curriculum page was held.
  • Varodayan pointed out that these pages are used by students when deciding on courses. Schmitz also pointed out that some students are confused as to whether they must specialize in a sub discipline (they don't). Chew suggested that students should be encourage to not specialize and, instead, focus on breadth of knowledge at this stage in their careers.  Makela pointed out that the current introduction to the sub disciplines points out the contrast between depth and breadth.
  • The general consensus was that the sub disciplines should be looked at by the areas again for updating/modernizing as seen fit by the areas. Hajek pointed to the Communication Systems as a potential model. Ultimately, the decisions should be left up to the areas. The curriculum committee should provide guidance as to the type of information that should be included during the revision process and work with the various areas during the updates.
  • Makela suggested holding a smaller meeting of interested committee members to come up with a set of suggested guidelines to be considered.
• The meeting was adjourned at 2:45pm.

Action Items