March 30, 1995

CEFO Minutes

(J. Carter, Secretary)

M I N U T E S

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FACULTY ORGANIZATION Special Meeting to Approve College Strategic Plan Thursday, March 30, 1995 @ 12:30 PM CARC Building – Room 101

Dr. David Young opened the meeting at 12:38 PM. The following signed the attendance sheet:

COLLEGE OF ENGR: R. Snyder, N. Schul. COMPUTER SCIENCE: M. Allen, G. Epstein, J. Frazier, R. Lejk, J. Maitan, Z. Michalewicz, H. Razavi, R. Shaw, K. Subramanian, J. Xiao. ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: B. Barry, E. Braun, N. Byars, J. Carter, C. Liu, J. Patten, R. Priebe, W. Shelnutt, P. Wang. CIVIL ENGINEERING: D. Bayer, J. Evett, H. Hilger, R. Janardhanam, I. Runge, D. Young. MECHANICAL ENGR & ENGR SCIENCE: I. Bodur, P. DeHoff, R. Dubler, H. Estrada, J. Hill, R. Kim, G. Mohanty, E. Munday. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING: R. Coleman, K. Daneshvar, A. Edwards, R. Greene, V. Lukic, M. Miri, W. Smith, F. Tranjan, D. Zhou. CAMERON A.R.C.: T. Rufty. COMPUTING SVCS & LABS: J. Grant. GUESTS: None. Total documented attendance: 46.

I & II. Minutes of the January 31, 1995 and February 21, 1995 Meetings. The minutes of these previous two meetings were approved as submitted.

III. COE Faculty Rewards Task Force, Nan Byars. The activities of the task force are continuing. The group is trying to fold the department comments and suggestions into a new document. The intent will be to provide a draft document to the faculty in the next faculty meeting.

IV. COE Teaching Enhancement Committee, David Young. The committee will submit an implementation document by mail in order to facilitate action at the next meeting of the faculty.

V. Makki-Young Course Evaluation Experiment, David Young. Rafic and David have experimented with in-class visitation and subsequent brainstorming about the course and its teaching. They visited each others’ classes and then met, exchanging notes. They felt the effort was well worth the time invested. If anyone is interested in the results, contact either Rafic or David.

VI. COE International Option, Norm Schul. (Attachments were provided in the meeting announcement). The engineering profession has recognized a need to integrate an international program into its activities. Extending the time to degree is not an option when considering its implementation. An approach which is chosen is to elect courses to fill the general education requirements which are part of the international program. Over a three year period, an Arts and Sciences group developed a proposal for internationalizing of the curriculum. The international option program is designed to prepare students for the challenge of succeeding within the global context of new technologies. It is not designed to be specific to a nation or region. Annually, 71,000 students study abroad, sponsored by about 70 American colleges. Ours is a two-phase process. First, is the selection of general education courses which fulfill ABET and general education requirements. Second, motivated students can do overseas study, research, or seek industrial placement. This latter option may add to the time to degree. A proposal will be forthcoming by the next meeting so that action and discussion may take place.

VII. Revised Departmental Curricula. (Attachments were provided in the meeting announcement).

Engineering Technology, Ed Braun. Under the previous curriculum, opportunity was provided for all goal credits to be taken at the upper division level without regard to the number of goal-credits transferred from their Associate degree program. The change involves the implementation of specific transfer advising, where a custom plan of study is generated for each student. This plan of study makes use of those goal credits and general education courses which were transferred by the admissions office. The previous curriculum required some students to take an excessive number of general education courses. This curriculum change only effects those students who were given goal-credit transfer by the admissions office. These students may obtain the additional general education credits needed for the international option through the use of directed electives which are generated by the transfer of goal-credit coursework.

Much of the material in Engineering Analysis III is needed earlier in the program, so the number of hours attributed to it were reduced, and a new course, EGET3071 Engineering Technology Professional Seminar, has been added to the curriculum. This one-hour course will provide basic tools such as Mosaic and P-Spice in the student’s first semester at UNCC. The total number of credit hours in the technology programs has been reduced to 124.

Civil Engineering, David Young. A mechanism for design throughout the curriculum has been established, starting in the Freshman year with Experimentation I, followed by Experimentation II and III, continuing with design and project labs through the Senior year. The number of credits was reduced to 120 hours. Three additional course slots are provided to mesh with a planned 5-year Master’s degree program. An additional humanities elective was added to support ABET and the international option. Physics III was removed. The statistics requirement was replaced by a math elective.

Electrical Engineering, Farid Tranjan. The new curriculum has nine new courses. Engineering practice starts in the Freshman year laboratories. This practice continues with experiments tied to coursework until the Senior Year Design which is a four-credit requirement. Statics, strengths and thermodynamics have been moved to the Senior year to place it closer to the time the EIT exam is taken.

Mechanical Engineering, Ed Munday. Part of the common Freshman year curriculum accommodated the international option. Experimentation courses start in the Freshman year and continue through the curriculum, finishing with design in the Senior year. Fifteen credits in humanities and social sciences include either ECON2101 or ECON2102. Engineering Economics is also included in the curriculum.

VIII. COE Strategic Plan Assessment, David Young. (An attachment was provided in the meeting announcement). At the end of the faculty meeting which was formed to act on the strategic planning document, a note was made concerning the lack of a specific mechanism to maintain the document. David Young replied that he has drafted a memo for the Strategic Planning Committee requesting that they address this issue.

IX. Upcoming ENGR1201 “Dress Rehearsals”, David Young. A dress rehearsal of this introduction to engineering course (syllabus attached to the meeting announcement), will be held on the 4th and 11th of April in Friday 17 at 12:00PM to 2:00 PM.

X. Dean’s Comments. All are invited to come to the ENGR1201 “dress rehearsal”. An end of semester picnic will be held on Friday, April 28th. Be reminded that it is for faculty and staff only.

XI. New Foreign Language Requirements, Horatio Estrada. The Foreign Language department has submitted a modified structure for completion of the foreign language requirements. The new requirement replaces the two-course, eight-credit sequence of 1201 and 1202 with a three-course, nine credit sequence of 1201, 1202, and 1203. Proficiency tests will be used to place students at the proper level. Students who have previous experience with a language will not be allowed to take 1201 for credit. Students who place out of 1202 and take 1203 will get course credit for 1202. Though memos have been distributed by the Foreign Language department, the new structure has not yet been approved by the University Curriculum Committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:02 PM.