Curriculum Commitee at Uni: What are the engineers we need? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: coldfiremc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 05:49:17 am
content: HiI've signed to be part of a curriculum commitee to evaluate current curriculum and propose a new one at my uni. I'm about to graduate(Electronic Engineer), so I have experienced the good and bad things, but I have little experience (but valuable) in the "real world" electronic engineering. So I came to ask you what you think about what can be changed in your educational process.I start with mine:EDIT: I've forgot this: Our Carreer is 12 semester. Is something like, under+half-graduate.My uni has a quite good, but also unconsistent mathematical/science background, however methods are archaic and evaluations were insanely hard, so is not strange to had 30% mean of approval. That sinks much people into frustration and even quit. Despite that, I think that our major problem is "engineering curriculum" itself (E&M, circuits, Systems, Programming, automation).Our current program is from mid 80's made by people graduated at end of 60's. It had excess emphasis in theory (but in "do the same I do, or just F" sense) and analog electronics (just one VERY basic programming course, no lab without one semester course first and so on). Classes are being taught by some old guys, almost all from the same uni (and all-analog philosophy), a clique of younger (40 yr old) Phd's who rely on pushing one paper per semester and on a lot of part time young teachers, most of them with my same age. All the forementioned groups can't keep up with the original program, so everything is even more crappy, and change reluctant.The contradiction is this: Those Phd's now rule the department and they need a lot of people working to complete their research tasks, however, the current curriculum doesn't cover ANY SINGLE ONE of the research subjects, or the subjects that would be considered as prerequisites, so most of last year students, run away from them, or suffer absurd levels of stress and anxiety trying to learn all that they never learnt (or nobody let them learn).*question here* how necesary are circuits courses now? what extent of coverage is needed?My opinion here:Not all engineers need to have a complete coverage of circuits. I think that Control/Automation guys had to learn just basic linear circuits, and also some transistor/op amp related stuff like active feedback networks, but nothing more (no digital circuit biasing, no special biasing techniques, interiors of integrated circuits, vlsi, advanced analog like oscillation). of course, mandatory power electronics.Instrumentation guys have to had complete coverage, especially active network synthesis, special amplifiers, PCB design, but not mandatory power electronics, optional VLSI and advanced digital systems.Digital guys almost the same, but optional advanced analog or power electronics and option to have VLSI, but synthesis of advanced digital systems had to be complete and mandatory (Learn HDL, and computer architecture).Telecom guys, the same as controls/automation, but not power electronics needed. Perhaps add some RF oriented circuitry.In what stance is my school now about circuit courses?My school has 2 courses for linear circuits (without ANY LAB, at least not officially). Originally courses were loosely based on books like Basic circuit Theory by Desoer & Kuh. Good book, but we need someone good as Charlie to teach that course: most of the time, we cannot even pass beyond transformers. Also linear circuits 2 is a mess. Every teacher had is own curriculum, and that sucks! and even more: Every single one of that curricula Sucks. A lot of time is lost teaching symmetrical components, no matter if you are electrical or electronic. Frequency domain is just torture people with absurd hard laplace transforms, nothing about filters, synthesis or related because my part time pals don't know nothing about that. coverage of systematic analysis, but no state space coverage (waste of time!).Then Introduction to electronics: Another mess here. Someone in a 60's weedsmoke thought that teaching a complete course of just semiconductor physics would be a great idea. Today, there's nobody that can cover that course. Also none of the contents of the course are used in the rest of the program! The following course is "electronic circuits" Another mess: nobody teaches comparable things. There was some semesters that no frequency response was evaluated and or taught. Also bad results because everyone is lost just knowing semiconductor physics.Then an advanced analog course, in parallel with digital electronic circuits course. Advanced analog has some interesting topics for me, like filters and oscillators, also some topics of simulation(but very incomplete), however the level was going down a little with time because the guy who teaches this, notes a lot of problems coming from the previous courses. Digital electronic circuits is a Terribly annoying course about memorizing answers from some class notes: ABSOLUTE DISSAPOINTING GARBAGE!Finally all of us had power electronics, funny subject, except for one thing, in the last 20 years, just the 11% of students pass this course. At any attempt (so lot of people get expelled from uni because of this course). The guy that teaches this is a violent maniac that mocks on people and also insult and humilliatres us. the problem He was the director of the school, so 20 years of humilliations were silenced.What you think about all of this?I have to go to sleep now, I want to put a discussion of every subject, not just circuits. But please, write what you think. Any opinion from outside is fresh experience.Thanks

author: jesuscf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 07:04:33 am
content: Quote from: coldfiremc on April 07, 2019, 05:49:17 am1) Insanity!2) Is there an accreditation engineering body in your country? Also, does your university have to get accredited in a periodic basis? Because based on your description, the program looks like it is in an "open loop".3) Professional engineers is what you need. Formal education may be part of it (albeit very significant). As for the courses take a look at the requirements of some professional associations in other countries. Here, for example, you can find the ones for the province of Alberta in Canada:https://www.apega.ca/apply/exams/technical/courses/and here it is the one for the province of British Columbia, also in Canada:https://www.egbc.ca/Become-a-Member/How-to-Apply/Academic-Examinations-and-Syllabi/Engineering-SyllabusI bet you can easily find similar information for other countries and regions.

author: coldfiremc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 04:04:40 pm
content: Thanks2)There is, however , their metrics are weird, and uni knows how to lie.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 04:44:03 pm
content: It's perhaps useful to know if this is an undergrad (bachelor) or grad studies (master).If undergrad, then a wide study program is not a bad thing. People will have to go through every hurdle sure, but you have chosen EE or you haven't. In the end the concepts in analog electronics and control theory are not too dissimilar; they both use laplace domain and are preferably performed using linear models of the system.Having to learn VLSI sounds more like a grad subject though.If grad studies, then you want to have good focus with a close relationship to active research for each subject. In most of the grad courses I've done over the past few years, the typical standard for these courses is being able to read, criticize or if time allows WRITE modern IEEE literature papers in the area. A simple criteria for "modern" is: material being covered between now and the last 5 to 10 years.In my university, all (16) but 3 of the courses I've done were electives. (Obviously you can argue that a major is also an elective - i.e. if you don't like EE then do CS, mechatronics, embedded systems, etc.)

author: coldfiremc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 06:07:42 pm
content: I've forgot this: Our Carreer is 12 semester. Is something like, under+half-graduate.