Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ABET 2000 Methodology of Evaluation - rather than credit counting Outcomes assessment –Faculty Review

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

ABET 2000

• Methodology of Evaluation - rather than credit counting

• Outcomes assessment– Faculty Review of Performance

– Survey Students

– Survey Recruiters / Alums

– Panels for targeted feedback

• Show coupling of assessment to curriculum renewal and overhaul

• Verify that students meet nationally recognized criteria


B.S.E.E Program

• General Education and Pre-professional 48 credits

• College Core and Accreditation 22 credits

• Electrical Engineering Core 27 credits

• EE Specializations 11 or 12 credits

• EE Electives 17 or 18 credits

Total is 126 credits - fixed by state rule


General Education and Pre-professional

• Humanities and Social Sciences - 15 credits– Must include international studies and diversity

– Usually satisfy Gordon Rule (Writing requirement)

• Calculus and Differential Equations - 15 credits

• Science - 15 credits– Chemistry I and lab

– Physics I and II and labs

– Chemistry or Biology

• General Elective - 3

• Raised Admissions Standards to Upper Division


College Core and Accreditation

• Technical Writing - 3 credits

• Advanced Math and Statistics - 7 credits

• Ethics - 1 credit

• College Breadth - 9 credits– Mechanical Engineering - Thermo, Mechanical Design

– Engineering Science - Statics, Dynamics, Mechanics of Materials

– Engineering Economics

– Advanced Math - Now teaching within ECE

• Computing Elective - 2 credits


Electrical Engineering Core

• Circuits I and II and lab - 7 credits

• Signals and Systems - 3 credits

• Electronics and lab - 4 credits

• Solid State Devices - 3 credits

• Electromagnetic Fields - 3 credits

• Digital Logic and lab - 4 credits

• Senior Design - 3 credits


Additional EE

• Specializations - Choose 3 of these 5 Areas:– Power and Energy + lab

– Analog or Digital Electronics + lab

– Communications + lab

– Linear Controls + lab

– Microprocessors + lab

• Electives 17 - 18 credits

• Represents much of the senior year


Curriculum Goals

• Broad Education– General Ed, College Breadth

– Gordon Rule

• Knowledge of mathematics, science, engineering– General Ed, Math, Science, College Core

• Engineering Problem Solving– College Core

– EE Core, EE Electives

– Senior Design / IPPD

• Design and Conduct Experiments– Physics, Chemistry, ECE - minimum 9 credits of labs

– Statistics

– Senior Design / IPPD


B.S./M.S. Program

• Increasingly Popular

• Graduate Electives can be doubled counted– 6 or 12 credits (depending on GPA)

• Streamlined – 30 credit hour, non-thesis option

– Course work only option - no final exit exam required

– Completion possible in 1 additional calendar year (9, 9, 6)

• Encouraging all qualified students to pursue


ABET Processes - Objectives

• ABET Board has a lot of input

• ABET Board is to review surveys - more later

Objectives Alumni Survey Data

External ABET Board

Faculty ABET Committee


ABET Processes - Objectives

• Course Committees are key

• Faculty Review Data, Set Standards, Control Content

BSEE Program

Faculty

Individual Courses

Course Committees

Direct and Indirect Assessment Data

ABET Comm ittee

Curriculu m Comm ittee

Indire ct Da ta Course Evaluations Grade Distributions Focus Groups Exit Surveys

Depar tmen t Chair


Fall 2006 Visit

• Clean bill of health - full six year accreditation with no issues

• Items that came up in review - considered minor

• Faculty / Staff / Students / Board Members did great

• Worked long hours during the review to respond


Issues

• Objectives

• Outcomes• Design and Conduct Experiments

• Professional• Statistics

• Standards


ABET Definitions

• Objectives– Broad Statements

– Goals for students 5 years after graduation

– Measured by surveys / focus groups

• Outcomes– Specific skills

– Measured at graduation time

– Direct measurement (not grades or surveys)


BSEE Objectives

The objectives of the EE program at UF are to prepare students for:

1. Successful careers in a dynamic industry that is global, multi-disciplinary, and evolving;

2. Admission to, and excelling in, the best graduate programs in the world;

3. Good citizenship by engaging in ethical engineering for the betterment of society and the world.

• Can’t do #2 for all students - not clear that it isn’t a goal for all students


BSEE Objectives - Change

The objectives of the EE program at UF are to prepare students for:

1. Successful careers in a dynamic industry that is global, multi-disciplinary, and evolving; and/or

admission to, and excelling in, the best graduate programs in the world;

2. Good citizenship by engaging in ethical engineering for the betterment of society and the world.

• Evaluator seemed happy with this change


Action Items

• Is this wording ok?• Should we come up with an alternate?

• Change has been approved, but should we redo in a more major way?


BSEE Outcomes

• Design and Conduct Experiments• Fortunate

• 3304 - Design a testing plan for a circuit• 3304 - Design a procedure for parameter extraction• 3701 - Design a circuit and test vectors to verify operation• 4744 - Design controllers and testing protocols• 4914 - Design in test plan with design


Professional - Statistics and Probability

• Appropriate to discipline• Not enough to require a course• Included

– 3304 Device parameter extraction and variations– 3396 Boltzmann Statistics, Linear reduction– 4331 Probability functions in describing doping– 4514 Noise in communications systems and impact on

signals– 4914 Least Squares, Data Reduction


Professional - Standards

• Appropriate use of standards in design• Throughout curriculum

– CprE classes - 5V design of logic, bus standards– Power - power standards– Communications - many standards– Microprocessor families and designs

• Examples in Senior Design– USB / Ethernet Communication– GPS– Power Control


Lessons Learned

• Very detailed about data and history– ChemE was asked to provide all faculty minutes….– Post relevant data on the web site to maintain records

• Outcomes and Links to classes– Lucky - some classes changed labs and dropped ABET items– Explicit list what the outcome is in a course– Include this in the standard syllabus approved by course

committee

• Survey refinement (More Later)• Work on opportunities for multi / inter disciplinary

– Clarify definitions

• Extend Senior Design (More Later)


Counseling Assistants - Intro

• Poor Retention Freshmen to Junior– Lose about 50% of incoming freshmen

– Retention is excellent when they hit our classes

• Math instruction is poor– Students are under prepared

– Data on ABET Outcome a - an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1 2 3 4 5

Fall 3111

Spring 3111

Fall 3135

Spring 3135

Fall 3472

Spring 3472


Counseling Assistants

• Hire rising seniors to be counseling assistants

• CA’s will:– Help 15 - 25 students

– Show interest, monitor grades, direct to resources

– Provide additional help in calculus - help sessions

– Provide relevance of courses to degree

– Guide students to professional opportunities

– Show the department cares and wants freshmen to succeed

• Major benefits– Connect students to the department

– Find peers in major / social structure

Documents

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ABET 2000 Methodology of Evaluation - rather than credit counting Outcomes assessment –Faculty Review