Enriching engineering curricula with a course on cutting-edge computer technologies

This paper reports the design and implementation of a special topics course on Kinect Application Development. The primary objective of the course is to enrich the Electrical and Computer Engineering curricula by teaching cutting edge computer technologies to keep our programs current and exciting to students. This course differs from traditional Electrical and Computer Engineering courses both in the content covered and in the way it was taught. This course covers both fundamental computer vision technologies that made Kinect possible as well as the rich Application Programming Interfaces provided by the Kinect Software Development Kit. Furthermore, the course consists of both traditional lecture-based instructions and active learning components with lab exercises and team-based projects. The course offers students an opportunity to practice real-world software engineering as well as solving multidisciplinary problems.