Program Educational Objectives

The ECE Department consists of two programs at the undergraduate level, one in Computer Engineering, and the other in Electrical Engineering. The objectives of each of these programs are shared, and reviewed annually by the faculty. More specifcally, to fulfill the vision of the ECE Department and serve our constituents, the objectives of the ECE undergraduate programs are to educate students to become resourceful practitioners of engineering who:
1. Are capable of utilizing their engineering skills in industry and national laboratories, or in the pursuit of graduate education;
2.Are knowledgeable of the professional responsibilities and social context associated with being an engineer; can work in teams and e ectively communicate the results of their work;
3. Will develop their knowledge and skills throughout their careers; and,
4. Function well in a diverse environment.

The ECE faculty have created curricula for the Computer and Electrical Engineering programs that are aimed at achieving these objectives. in order to determine our success in this regard, we have a set of educational outcomes that we continually assess during a students' career at UNM, and for some outcomes, assessment continues post graduation.

In the following sections we rst provide detailed descriptions of the curricula in the Computer and Electrical Engineering programs. Next, we describe the process that is used to assess the e ectiveness of our curricula relative to a set of outcomes that will also be described. After that, we describe the continuous improvement process that we have been applying to the assessment process. In the remaining sections we provide information about the department's undergraduate population, and the recruiting e orts that department undertakes in order to attract students to our programs.

Undergraduate curriculum

Detailed descriptions of the Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs are provided in Appendix I. These descriptions list the exact courses that must be taken in order to receive a degree in either program. Note that there is a signi cant amount of overlap in the coursework associated with these two programs during the first two years. That is, many of the 100- and 200-level courses are common between these two programs. Both programs consist of three major components, the General Education Component, the Mathematics & Sciences Component, and Computer/Electrical Engineering Component. In both programs the General Education Component consists of 9 credit hours of courses related to written communication, and 18 credit hours of courses belonging to Area of Knowledge. These latter courses are intended to broaden the academic background of ECE students, and satisfy the requirements of the core curriculum that must be taken by all University of New Mexico students. The Mathematics & Sciences Component consists of 21 and 18 credit hours of Mathematics courses, along with 11 and 14 hours of Sciences courses for the Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs, respectively. In the Computer Engineering program, the Computer Engineering Component consists of 58 credit hours of required coursework, and 15 credit hours of elective coursework that must back taken in one of two tracks, Hardware Emphasis or Software Emphasis. In the Electrical Engineering program, the Electrical Engineering Component consists of 61 credit hours of required coursework, and 12 credit hours of elective coursework that is broken into Technical Electives and Track Electives. Students in the Electrical Engineering program must take 6 hours of track electives, selected from one of five tracks. These tracks were created to provide depth in a particular sub-discipline within Electrical Engineering. Finally, students in the Electrical Engineering program are required to take 6 additional hours of technical electives that are intended to add technical breadth the undergraduate experience.