ECE Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes for 10 Nov, 2006

1. The Curriculum Committee approved the minutes of the November 3, 2006 meeting with corrections.
2. The Committee discussed the construction of a minimal list of topics that all of our students should know. It was questioned whether one unified list would suffice for both our Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering curricula; we agreed to try to assemble a unified list, but that anyone who felt that a distinction should be made should submit their list(s) accordingly. Similarly, we wondered whether a distinction between topics requiring high-level conceptual knowledge and those requiring mastery of the topic needed to be made; again, the decision was left to the discretion of the listmaker.
3. Seth Hutchinson led a discussion about the honors program, based on his opinion that we should be able to make it more meaningful and appealing for our honors students. The James Scholar program is administered at the College level, but Seth pointed out that the College sets a minimal set of requirements, and that departments are free to add to them. He emphasized that changes should not make the program more difficult, or require extra work of the students to "earn" the honors, but to give them a more enriching experience. From his interactions with students, he feels that things that would be appealing to them include classes more interesting to the top students, and closer and more personal interactions with faculty. Seth pointed out that an honors program is by nature an elitist program, and that changes that enrich their experience could be divisive, and that this issue should be considered squarely. He also suggested that we consider whether motivated students in our department who are not part of the College program could participate.

   Seth said that in his experience, the majority of honors students aren't aware of the realities of graduate school and that they probably should plan on further education, and he hoped the honors program could improve this.

   Prof. Hutchinson said he has no specific plans at this point, and that he was looking for good ideas from the Committee. Ideas he and others suggested include special honors sections of required courses, such as ECE 110 or ECE 210, with small class sizes and selected instructors interested in teaching honors students, and shepherding students into research groups at an early stage.

   Nikita Borisov stated that from his experiences in an undergraduate honors program, separate honors sections were generally very positive experiences, but that special add-on one-hour "experiences" or extras were not.

   The Committee concluded that we should collect ideas and continue the discussion after these have been compiled. Seth agreed to collect and compile the ideas; send ideas via email to seth@uiuc.edu.

4. A brief discussion about ECE 498: Senior Thesis and advanced composition ensued; it was agreed to put this on the formal agenda for a future meeting.
5. The Committee adjourned at 11:50 AM.