Computer Engineering Program Industrial Advisory Committee (Previous Meeting Summary)

1. Computer Engineering Program Industrial Advisory Committee(Previous Meeting Summary) Dr. Aiman El-Maleh Dept. of Computer Engineering King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia

2. Outline • Industrial Advisory Committee Role • Industrial Advisory Committee Members • Previous Meeting Agenda • Input Provided by Members of IAC • Summary of IAC Survey • Actions Taken by COE Department

3. Industrial Advisory Committee Role • Review of department area of concentrations and recommend some enhancement to undergraduate program in some specialized areas. • Provide inputs on the undergraduate student qualifications and skills based on new trends and local industry needs. • Provide feedback on the Educational Objectives and Program Outcomes and their implications on the program curriculum. • Provide feedback on the achievement of program outcomes by our graduates.

4. Industrial Advisory Committee Members (External) • Dr. Khalid Al-Biyari, Senior Vice President, Advanced Electronic Company, Riyadh. • Mr. Ali A. Al-Masari, Superintendent, Communications Operations Department, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran. • Mr. MasudEid Al-Amiri, General Manager, Information Technology Services, SABIC, Riyadh. • Mr. Ahmad Ashadawi, President, Al-Falak Electronic Equipment & Supplies Co, Al-Khobar. • Mr. AlaaAbunijem, MS, PMP, Energy Team lead and Strategic Relations Manager, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Intel Corporation, Riyadh. • Mr. Aiman H Mufti, Supervisor, Technical Knowledge Sharing Unit, Engineering Knowledge & Resources Division, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran.

5. Industrial Advisory Committee Members (Internal) • Dr. AdnanGutub, Chairman Computer Eng. Dept. • Dr. Mayez Al-Mouhamed, Professor • Dr. Aiman El-Maleh, Associate Professor • Dr. AshrafMahmoud, Assistant Professor • Dr. BasemAlmadani, Assistant Professor

6. Previous Meeting Agenda • Introduction to COE department programs and facilities • Review of ABET accreditation process, the role of Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC), and the efforts undertaken by the COE department towards this goal • Receive feedback and recommendation of IAC regarding the department Program Educational Objectives, accreditation process • Agree on IAC meeting frequency and the mechanisms needed for the IAC to assume their role. • Question & Answer session addressing COE program depth and breadth, market needs, COOP & summer training, COE graduates

7. Input Provided by Members of IAC • Issue#1: Quality of Computer Engineering Graduates: • Communication & Presentation Skills of COE Graduates: • lack of communication and presentation skills in COE-KFUPM graduates, in general. • Quality of COE Graduates: • lack of exposure to current developments in information technology.

8. Input Provided by Members of IAC • Issue # 2: COE Department-Industry Interaction: There is an urgent need to improve COE faculty-industry relations: • Faculty Exposure to Industry: • Faculty should bring case studies related to their subjects from local industrial sections. • Dr. Khalid Al-Biyari extended an invitation for the faculty to spend a week’s time in his industry. • Research Interaction with Industry: • Means for strengthening the involvement of faculty in solving local industrial problems need to be investigated. • The possibility of forming a strong partnership with industry may be an avenue to be investigated.

9. Input Provided by Members of IAC • Issue # 3: Effectiveness of Coop and Summer Training Programs: • Coop students from KFUPM are focusing on mere reporting to the department rather than presenting their learning experience. • Some students’ coop/summer training reports are well written but their level of work presentation is very low. • Develop ways and means for making this experience more effective in making the student professionally more stable and aware of real life problems in the industry. • Suggested to look at the successful stories and experience faced by COE ALUMNI for achieving their goal in their life

10. Input Provided by Members of IAC • General Comments • Add a course of Engineering Economics (to be core) • Mr. AlaaAbunijem said that COE graduates lack wider exposure to High-performance Computing and Software areas, whereas department has a stronger VLSI area. • Dr. Khalid Al-Biyari said that by concentrating on system design projects, more emphasis on system integration using available components is needed. • Mr. Ahmad Ashadawi stated that there is no data research, and there is an urgent need to develop top most quality and capability access to massive data - data storage, retrieval, analysis, management and security. • COOP work plan should be identified ahead of time for sending the students to the respective industry/company for coop or summer training program.

11. Summary of IAC Survey • Inputs on the Educational Objectives: • Good objectives, however, you need some focus on few areas to shine in and gain regional and WW reputation. • There is a breadth but not much depth in the overall objectives. • Provide graduate engineers with ability of supporting the industry in the following fields: Communication network design, and Embedded system design • Inputs on the Program Assessment Method: • Reasonable. • Very good.

12. Summary of IAC Survey • Inputs on the Program Outcomes: • Program outcomes are fine and the only suggested improvement is to stress more practical disciplines. • Students should specialize and go in depth in specific disciplines that will make them productive faster. • Outcome of the program need some improvements, since we are now competing in WW level, not local level. Companies now look for skilled employees regardless of their physical locations. • Students graduating from KFUPM are very good especially in work ethics. However, they lack specialization. It will be better if the last 2 semesters at minimum, are dedicated to specialization.

13. Summary of IAC Survey • The COE program needs to improve the listed below graduate abilities, attributes and skills which are estimated to be important for the Industry: • Design a system, component to meet a desired need (1) • Analyze and interpret data from experiments (1) • Communicate orally: informal and prepared talks (2) • Communicate in writing: letters, technical reports, etc. (2) • Ability to use state of the art techniques, and tools (2) • Recognize professional and ethical responsibility (1) • Function on multi-disciplinary or cross-functional teams (all) • Use computing technology in communications (all) • Understand the contemporary issues surrounding him (all) • Use computing technology in engineering analysis/design (1)

14. Summary of IAC Survey • List three most useful knowledge, skills, and professional tools that you think should be taught in the COE Program prior to be eligible to the CO-OP or Summer Training: • Automated Office skills (Word/Excel etc...), learning how to search the internet for information, technical writing skills, and how to write reports • Developing applications using Microsoft and Sun technologies • Understand the infrastructure design using Microsoft and Sun environments including networking and storage designs, and troubleshooting skills and analysis.

15. Summary of IAC Survey • In depth technical knowledge in practical areas relevant to need of local and multinational companies operating in the region. • KFUPM need to assess the need of the industry and focus more in area that is more relevant. For example HPC computing is needed locally but no in-depth knowledge. • Programming in C and C++, Study of industrial standard C51 microcontroller, and get familiar with the use of the microcontroller development tools, like compiler, simulator, in-circuit emulator.

16. Summary of IAC Survey • What should be done to improve the COE Education at KFUPM? • More interaction with the local industry. • Capitalize on local and related technologies to address country challenges • Increase the exchange of skills and knowledge between world class universities in related fields, • Introduce the distance learning / video conferencing in the related fields. • More up-to-date dynamic curriculum to reflect the ever changing technology. • Enhance the laboratory skills, study software quality, and study embedded systems operation system.

17. Summary of IAC Survey • What should be done to improve the professional partnership between the COE and the Industry? • Match KFUPM programs with industry requirement by having faculty spend time in industry. • Conduct Knowledge Transfer Sessions where industry and education exchange their experience and skills • Introduce industry challenges to the education sector to address these challenges through senior projects or special studies • More frequent visits of students and Faculty to Industry • Encourage graduate students to do their projects on areas having direct impact on the local needs. • Getting advisors from Industry

18. Actions Taken by COE Department • All KFUPM students required to take ICDL • Engineering economy is a core in the new curriculum • New curriculum is designed with minimum core requirements with increased number of electives • Allows more flexibility in program • Focuses on more in-depth in selected tracks • Catalog description of computer architecture courses revised to address HPC requirements • COE 403 – Advanced Microprocessor Architecture • COE 420 – Parallel Computing • A High-Performance Cluster has been arranged at the Information Technology Centre (ITC).

19. Actions Taken by COE Department • The courses COE 400 "Embedded Systems" and COE 305 "Microprocessor Systems" have been revised and restructured to better address system design project integrating hardware and software components. • One undergraduate course on Data Management is introduced and being offered as elective course. • COE students are exposed to Oral and Written communication at all levels: • Technical report writing (ENGL 214), • Seminar (COE 390), • Set of course projects where a technical report is required • COE 400 "Embedded Systems" • COE 485 "Senior Design Project"