Prof. Jung Han
Prof. Peter Kindlmann
Prof. Roman Kuc
Prof. Yiorgos Makris
Aryesh Mukherjee EE '03
Rameez Saleh EE '02
Prof. Rimas Vaisnys (Chair)
Prof. Edmund Yeh

Our near-term objective, to which we draw the attention of the EE faculty for deliberation and discussion, is the design of an intellectually full-fledged introductory course, and the linked issue of its implied effect on the structure of the curriculum.

The constraints on the introductory course are that

• it be a required course within the ABET program and yet that
  
• it be accessible to students in their first year here.
  
• the course should cover important and fundamental material within EE in a serious manner without assuming prerequisites beyond those that typical engineering and science majors have upon entry to Yale. Some of our earlier discussions led to a phrasing of the objective of the course as the introduction to great ideas of electrical engineering, provided the
  
• students do not just talk about the ideas but also are able to do something with them.
• a student would be expected to demonstrate quantitative knowledge and quantitative thinking of the issues explored in the course, and possibly would know that material well enough to generalize it to novel situations.

These are the suggestions of introductory topics collected so far. It is not too late to send us additional comments and suggestions.

But from our discussions in the interim has emerged the following view which we suggest as the focus of further deliberation:

Possibilities for an EE introductory course

Most students probably will be most comfortable if they approach a complicated system from the bottom up, so the course would start with the identification and description (both analytical and synthetic) of a set of primitive but physical components from which a physical computer can be built without violating either known laws of physics or of society.

Something like a "powers of ten" approach would be used to move upward in the scale of complexity, with appropriate explanation of the coarse graining procedure. Those processes which do not require more than differentiation and integration as mathematical preparation would be described rigorously on the mathematical and logical level (if approximately on the physical level), so that system behavior would be derived quantitatively from the description. It is expected that some mathematics would be developed in the course, as the needs of the subject matter dictate. Physical realization considerations would be core to the discussion of each of the topics.

Course topic suggestions:

Analogue computation
Physics of bistability
Physics of controlled transitions
Inputs, states, outputs: systems (writing, storing and reading)
Discretization and coding
Memory
Finite state automatons
Universal Turing Machines
Digital systems
Boolean algebra - the first of 'software' tools
Combinational circuits
Sequential circuits
Components of a general purpose digital computer
Software tools
Doing more than one thing at once
Getting information from the environment
Influencing the environment
The (human) individual in the environment
Other computers in the environment
Computers and society

Please also review

• Minutes of the EE Curriculum Committee of Th, 17 Jan 02
• The ever-looming ABET (a)-(k) objectives, and
• Two tentative schema proposed for the EE curriculum
  • eecurr1.pdf - a more incisive track-based approach (2 pages)
  • eecurr2.pdf - a more flexible research-based approach

"What will an educated person need to know a decade or two from now, and what steps can Yale College take to ensure that students are given the best preparation for the future world?"

"How can Yale College take full intellectual advantage of its setting in the larger university?"

Substitute "engineer" for "person", and note in the second charge the intent to have undergraduate education take advantage of the graduate and professional school environment Yale offers. In reading President Levin's full text, however also reflect on the word frequencies of "science," "scientific," "biology" and "biological" vs. "engineering" and "technology."

This site can evolve into a broader tool of communication between the committee and the EE Faculty.
Please send suggestions to Peter Kindlmann.