ECE Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes for March 30, 2007

1. The Curriculum Committee approved the minutes of the March 2, 2007 meeting with minor corrections.
2. The Curriculum Committee approved the minutes of the March 9, 2007 meeting.
3. The Chair reported that he approved the offering of the new ECE 361 course under the temporary rubric ECE 398RS on behalf of the Committee.
4. Marie-Christine Brunet's feedback from students on the curricula was shared with the Committee: students find the pace of ECE 190 WAY too fast, and 385, 391, and 411 way too time-consuming; students complain a lot about ECE 440, and say it is too hard; students complain about the ECE 329 book.
5. Another spirited discussion of the list of topics relevant to most undergraduates ensued. The Committee struggled with the magnitude of the task, what fraction is or should be meant by "most" students, whether to simplify the task by discussing it on a course-by-course basis (with the risk that this would miss better partitions of materials across courses), and the needed depth. We decided that we should continue to work with the list, but that the committee members should go over the proposed list independently and bring an annotated list to the next meeting.
6. The Committee adjourned at 11:53 AM.