A wholesome ECE education

Fast advancing technologies will require a drastic transformation in the teaching of electrical and computer engineering (ECE). The current practice of compressing more and more materials into the four-year ECE curriculum must end. An ECE curriculum must be designed to provide students with solid fundamental knowledge and to teach them how to learn. It is more important to have a curriculum that teaches knowledge and skills that are long lasting and can be applied in new situations than one that teaches cutting-edge technology that may become obsolete in a few years. Electronic systems will be smaller, faster, smarter, and more complex. Most of the design work must be done using high-level abstractions. Besides being competent engineers, ECE graduates must be responsible and well-rounded citizens. After establishing a set of guiding principles, a liberal and broad-based curriculum with emphasis on a systematic approach to problem solving is suggested. An unconventional instructional approach is proposed and elaborated. Some of the nontechnology-related challenges facing ECE education are discussed.