ECE Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes for February 13, 2009

1. The Minutes of the February 6, 2009 meeting were approved with minor corrections.
2. The Chair relayed Elyse Rosenbaum's report that they are experimenting this semester in ECE 442 with the changes they believe necessary for revising the course to ECE 342 according to our curriculum revision objectives, and that she hopes to be ready to submit the ECE 342 proposal shortly after the end of the semester after the results can be evaluated.
3. The Curriculum Committee approved the proposed ECE 430 revision to renumber the course ECE 330. The course has always been taught at the Advanced Core level in accordance with our currricular objectives, so no other change is needed. It was suggested that we wait to collect all of the curricular revisions to submit to the College as a single package, to minimize the administrative burden on both us and the College.
4. The Curriculum Committee approved the request from Aerospace Engineering to cross-list ECE 470 as AERO 482, subject to Seth Hutchinson's approval.
5. Jont Allen proposed a list of Mechanical Engineering courses to be approved for technical elective credit; the final list is ME 170, 300, 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, 370, 371, 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 410, 411, 412, 420, 430, 431, 440, 445, 446, 450, 451, 452, 460, 461, 471, 472, 485, and 487.
6. A high-level discussion about modest expansion of the Advanced Core (3-of-5 list) followed. It was agreed that any expansion of the list should be modest; otherwise, it would fail to establish a solid advanced core for our students. Erhan Kudeki and Tangul Basar suggested the need for more options in the systems area, and that a course with elements of ECE 459, feedback (perhaps in the context of phase-lock loops (PLLs)), and digital communications might fill the need. Earlier, Pramod Viswanath suggested that ECE 361 would be a good addition. Doug Jones asked whether more computer engineering should be included, e.g. by listing ECE 391 and CS 225 as independent, rather than either/or options. Erhan Kudeki and Steve Levinson asked whether a focus on numerical computation would be better; Pramod Viswanath suggested algorithms. Donna Brown suggested that we should solidify our list of essential topics in the computing area to place the discussion of computing-area options on more principled ground. Jones pointed out that the option of moving ECE 440/340 (physical electronics) from the Core to the Advanced Core remains on the table. These were the only topical areas the Committee felt needed further consideration for inclusion in the Advanced Core.
7. The Committee adjourned at 3:57 PM.