12/08/07

Joint Computer and Electrical Wrapup session.

Started: 12:30
Ended: 2:00
Secretary Pro Tem: Doug Lyon

Attendees:  Jack Beal, Doug Lyon (Secretary Pro Tem), Jerry Sergent (meeting chair), Pradeep Govil, Bob Distinti, Chris Craciun, Amalia Rusu, Ian Balin


Jerry:  I taught ECE 490/EE 350, ECE 446/EE 346, and ECE 447.
I was very satisfied academically.  Attendance and participation was excellent, as it always is in graduate courses.

As chair, I was very frustrated with attendance and work ethic of undergraduate students this year. At risk forms were plentiful and students non-responsive.


Jack: Taught the EE213 Course this year.

He was disappointed with the students' performance in the Intro to Circuits course. The students are weak in calc I and II.

One student was a EE major, the others took the course as a required course outside of their discipline.

There were several environmental issues in the lab. The computers in the lab were changed and the software was changed at late.
The classroom was otherwise fine.

I have 26 engineering students in the class. Some are really good, others do not belong in engineering.

I have had a lot of trouble getting licences activated. Licenses have to be reactivated manually. Timely support is very difficult to obtain. We need additional resource and this is adversely impacted our ability to teach. Being in BNW on the CNS server has been far more reliable. Vagos says we do not have the support we need to answer all the needs.

Doug:

This year I taught CR320, CR310 and SW410.
In one class we had an alcoholic student.
  I am concerned that we do not have a support system for students who are graduate students and are alcoholics.

There are issue, also with computer support. We have trouble with system admins that do not post hours. Students are always looking for the system admin.

Jim Tsacoyeanes:

EE321: Students are tag teaming on who shows up.
They are trading off on who shows up to class.
Some students are taking too many courses. In one case the student took to taking problems that were given on the board and then handed them in.

I had a lot of part time students this year who had trouble getting the homework done.

Computer facility issues were present from the beginning.
I asked for a computer and a projector. I went 3 weeks and could not get this. Also, was unable to get access to the room.

Two students dropped out. The third student is taking a midterm makeup. People are taking advantage.

One of the students walked out and said he had to be tutored in another class (in the very first class).

We had a bi-modal distribution in the grades. Some students just did not try...

Pradeep:EE231, Analog Electronics I.

The mindset of the students is as technicians.
We need to emphasize the engineering concepts, not processes.

This time I had the right kind of room. We need to have a list of equipment for each room. The first time the room was assigned, the room was incorrect.

There should be an emphasis on more problem solving and less use of computers. More on the application of how to solve and approach problems.

Their should be a required approval, by the advisor, of the course that the student takes.

The same students have an attendance issue (came for 4 out of 13 classes).

I want to make sure that the students are learning before I graduate the student.

I had 7 students, 5 have been there for all the classes.

Basic ideas behind the rationale of the physics should be imbued into the EG31 course. EG31 emphasis should be on abstractions, not the computer tools.

Students all want to use the calculator for everything.

Jerry: If you go to the micron website you can get LT spice and it is at least as good as multisim.

Pradeep: We should have a department web site.

Bob Distinti: EE301, Signals and Systems.
I have the same guys as everybody else...the guys who did not show up until after the midterm.

I give the students a practice midterm.
I give the students a midterm in class.
I suspect cheating. And I have
a Sunday study session.

We do LaPlace transform