1. A new set of courses (ECE 197a, ECE 297a, ECE 397a, ECE 497a)
were created to provide our students an opportunity to better understand,
develop, and exercise their professional skills. The professional
skills that the Electrical Engineering program focuses on are ethics,
the social and global impact upon engineering design, the ability
to engage in lifelong learning, and the awareness and appreciation
of contemporary issues in an engineering education and career.
2. In order to assure a higher success rate of our students, the
advanced standing grade point average (GPA) was raised to 2.75
from 2.5. Students with a higher GPA should be more capable of
succeeding
in our upper division courses in the Electrical Engineering program.
3. The ECE department modified the electrical engineering
curriculum to include a mandatory course in microcontrollers. Now,
our
electrical engineering graduates are better able to understand
and address
the issues involved with designing and incorporating microcontrollers
into engineering solutions. In addition, they indirectly receive
a little more programming experience, as a result, of the microcontroller
course.
4. The number of units allocated to the first semester of the
senior capstone course (ECE 498a) was raised from one to
two. Increasing
the units assigned to ECE 498a has motivated the students
to put more energy into the capstone course and has allowed the
program
to enhance the design content in the course.
5. An industrial advisory group has been established in the
ECE department. The advisory group has meet a couple of
times in
the past few years.
The group provides input and direction to the Electrical
Engineering program from an industrial perspective.
6. A senior portfolio writing activity has been introduced
into the second semester of the capstone course (ECE
498b). The portfolios
are evaluated each semester by a panel consisting of
engineering faculty and industrial representatives and non-technical
readers from academia and industry. The portfolio process
has documented
an improvement in our students' writing ability over
the past few
years.
7. The ECE department has created two computer-based
classrooms or laboratories that students in our Electrical
Engineering
program can utilize. The facilities also provide our
faculty with state-of-the-art
instructional capabilities that they can use for course
specific instruction. The student feedback from these
two rooms, containing
up-to-date computer resources, has been very positive.
8. The ECE faculty have recently modified the educational
objectives of the Electrical Engineering program.
The program will continue
to evolve the educational objectives to reflect the
characteristics and qualities our graduates should
possess a few years
after graduation.
9. The advising group in the ECE department continues
to improve their impact on the Electrical Engineering
program.
The advising
group recently expanded to include two full-time
advisors for our undergraduate students. The number
of students
the group
continues
to advise remains high. In addition, the advice
is timely, accurate, and useful.