Undergraduate Concerns

1. Undergraduate Concerns Brought to you by the representatives of: AUWiCSEE, CSUA, HKN, IEEE, UPE, XCF

2. Overview • Transfer Student Difficulties • Upgrading Infrastructure • Course Concerns • Curriculum Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

3. Transfer Student Difficulties • Transfer students feel lost • want more guidance, before and after admission • Buddy System • Recommendation: designate one EE and one CS professor to advise transfer students Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

4. Upgrading Infrastructure • Courseware on Unix • Reallocating EE 40 lab • Faster Machines Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

5. Infrastructure: Courseware on Unix • A machine running Unix can serve 10 students • A Windows machine serves only 1 student • Unix software helps ease the space crunch • Courses which could do better • CS 160: gcc tools for PDAs • CS 184: bmrt and OpenGL for Unix • CS 186: Postgres or MySQL, instead of Access Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

6. Infrastructure: EE 40 Lab • EE 40 lab has very high end equipment • EE 40 students don’t need all that power • Upper division EE classes could use more equipment • Recommendation: move the equipment to the upper division labs and buy cheaper components for EE 40 Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

7. Infrastructure: Faster Machines • Unix machines in Soda are too slow • under load, machines cannot keep up with typing • Need about $50k a year to upgrade Unix lab machines and servers • Recommendation: Add a $20 course fee to CS 61 series • every other science class with major infrastructure has a course fee Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

8. Course Concerns • Single person projects in lower division • We feel a number of classes could be improved • CS 162 • CS 184 • CS 186 • EE 20 • EE 40 and 42 • EE 122 Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

9. Course Concerns: Single Person Projects • We like single person projects • ensure that all students do the same amount of work • CS 61B and CS 61C students who do single person projects are more prepared • Recommendation: make all CS 61A projects single person except for the first project Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

10. Course Concerns: CS 162 • Nachos project is poorly architected, does not reflect reality • Too much work for TAs and professors to support the courseware • Solution: a crack team of students is working on designing new courseware • should be ready for Spring 02 • contact babylon@csua for more details Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

11. Course Concerns: CS 184 • Course is out of step with current trends in computer graphics • Recommendation: more time on splines and surfaces, less time on 2D graphics • if students complain about the algebra, enforce the math prerequisite Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

12. Course Concerns: CS 186 • Students want more in-depth coverage • “not a design course” • Course project framework is broken • Bugs mar the learning experience, frustrate students • Recommendation: bring back Prof. Wang’s projects (Spring ’99: 6.6/7.0 HKN rating) Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

13. Course Concerns: EE 20 • Inconsistent from semester to semester • Disconnect between book and lecture • Material not appropriate for freshmen • Math 54 should be a prerequisite • Driving students away from EE • Recommendation: institute surveys every half semester - works for CS 61C Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

14. Course Concerns: EE 40 and 42 • EE students feel unprepared for upper division classes after 40 • Recommendations: • less time on IC fabrication • bring back important topics • BJTs, op-amps, Bode plots • merge EE 40 and 42 Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

15. Course Concerns: EE 122 • Inconsistent material and projects • Fewer topics, more depth • Must have stronger textbook • use Richard Stevens’ texts • industry-standard, used by students today • Recommendation: a faculty member needs to take charge of the course Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

16. Curriculum • Foreign Language Courses • Positive Changes • Guaranteed Course Sequences Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

17. Curriculum: Foreign Languages • Very difficult for EECS students to become proficient in a foreign language • need to take 20 units per semester to satisfy EECS requirements while learning a foreign language • Recommendation: Allow two advanced courses in one foreign language to count towards breadth requirements Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

18. Curriculum: Positive Changes • Relaxing L&S CS requirements • makes L&S CS as flexible as EECS • TA Track • helps get motivated TAs • doesn’t aggravate class overcrowding Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

19. Curriculum: Guaranteed Course Sequences • Overwhelming majority of students think it is a BAD idea • Inflexible if student’s interests change • Limits student choice of professor • against the spirit of academia • Unfairly penalizes students who break the sequence • professors not willing to commit to teaching courses • Delays graduation of seniors Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

20. Key Recommendations • Institute transfer student pre- and post-admission advising system • Implement course fees for lower division lab courses • use funds to improve computing infrastructure • Abandon guaranteed course sequences Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001

21. Authors • Galen Hancock – galen@csua - CSUA Treasurer, undergraduate TA • Joe Jamp – jjamp@hkn - HKN • Peter Loer – ploer@upe - UPE President • Paolo Soto – paolo@xcf - root@cory, XCF • Paul Twohey – twohey@csua - CSUA President, HKN, undergraduate TA • Byron Yu – byu@hkn - HKN Department Relations Undergraduate Concerns - Faculty Retreat 2001