Integrated System-Level Design in Electrical Engineering

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This is a planning grant for department level reform at the University of Utah, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In this project, the already strong laboratory component within the ECE program at the University of Utah will be enhanced by developing system-level design projects to be integrated within individual courses and also spanning multiple courses. This builds on a particular strength of the department, which already has a top-notch industrially-sponsored senior design sequence a few courses with strong system design projects. Through this change, it is expected to (1) increase student recruitment and retention (including diverse students who might otherwise not have chosen or stayed in engineering), (2) increase student motivation (system design projects are FUN), (3) increase knowledge acquisition and retention (because you can't forget something that you need to integrate at the end of the semester and perhaps next semester too), and (4) develop system-level design understanding (the formal training of which is very limited within ours and other traditional engineering curricula).The novel aspects of this proposal include the projects themselves, the methods and concepts of integrating multiple classes within the curriculum, and the methods to assess and implement these projects. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty will work together to build this new program within our department.