For one thing, innovation and continuous quality improvement are not new to the department. ECE has always been a leader in implementing curricular innovations in tune with the changing times. In the fall of 1995, major revisions in curricula were introduced with the continuing goal of providing the students with long-term fundamental knowledge and educating them in marketable skills of current practice. Faculty are continually revising existing courses and introducing new courses. Undergraduate instructional laboratories are in a constant state of innovation and upgrading.
Organization is a key ingredient in overcoming the issues.
Although a large department, ECE is divided into several areas, with each area represented by an area committee of faculty. With this structure, all business is transacted pyramidically from the administration to the faculty via the area chairs and back up in reverse, thereby involving the entire faculty in the process. Consequently, one of the first tasks the ABET Evaluation Committee has undertaken is to assess, from the points of view of the faculty and the students, how well these attributes are being imparted to students. In this vein, course directors have been asked to prepare course goals and instructional objectives for the courses, identifying with each objective the attributes pertinent to that objective. These are updated every semester and made available on the departmental Web page.