ECE Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes for February 29, 2008

1. The Minutes of the February 22, 2008 meeting were approved with minor corrections.
2. After brief discussion, the Committee approved by acclamation a proposal from Erhan Kudeki to increase the Free Electives from 11 to 12 hours, by moving the corresponding hour from the Technical Electives. As explained by Prof. Kudeki, this rectifies an on-the-spot decision against the original intentions of the Curriculum Committee in response to changes in the number of hours in required Math courses.
3. Jont Allen raised the question of support for a Life Sciences minor. Discussion clarified that a formal minor (with notation on the transcript) must be developed by the primary campus unit(s) (e.g., department or college) in the relevant subject and approved at the campus level. A straw poll of the Curriculum Committee found general support for the idea, up to and including the point of accomodations in the curricula to aid interested students, should such a minor be developed.
4. The Curriculum Committee approved the ECE 398 proposal by Patricia Franke. There was some discussion as to whether a general numerical methods course should be required as a prerequisite; the consensus was against it at this point, but the issue should be raised again if and when it is proposed for permanent course status.
5. The Committee continued its review of ECE 410 and the emerging outline for the new ECE 310. The Committee was pleased with the proposed content and focus as presented by the course director Andy Singer, with the following suggestions:
   • Include applications through practical exercises using a standard applications language such as Matlab
   • Include a short introduction to digital feedback control by showing the standard feedback control system diagram, explicitly naming the plant and controller as such and highlighting the ability of the feedback to improve the system response (such as making it stable)
   • Multirate need not be included in this course
   The Committee expressed its pleasure with the progress that Professor Singer and his colleagues have made in responding to (or even anticipating) the core course revival initiative.
6. The Committee decided to move next to reviewing the current ECE 442 and ECE 443. Donna Brown emphasized that these reviews of individual courses are not final, and that we will need to revisit the ECE Core as a whole and perhaps make further adjustments.
7. The Committee adjourned at 11:59 AM.