Computer engineering technology program - A curriculum innovation initiative

Abstract

The proposed Computer Engineering Technology program is designed to meet industry's overwhelming need for employees with an in-depth knowledge of both hardware and software. There is a shortage of individuals who could implement hardware-software integration in design and development. The proposed degree curriculum plan will bridge the gap between these two disciplines, and will provide the students a solid foundation in each. The proposed curriculum will integrate the knowledge in the areas of electronics, computer and software with intensive classroom and laboratory experiences. From a software perspective, the proposed curriculum would draw its resources and would include most of the existing courses from the Computer Science curriculum within the department of Mathematics, Computer Science, & Statistics. Students will gain proficiency in software design and development using programming languages currently used in industry. The proposed curriculum would allow the students to draw courses from the areas like Algorithms, Image Processing, Distributed Systems, Automata and Computability, Database systems, Computer Graphics Artificial Intelligence and Numerical Analysis. Students learn industry standard approaches to application software development as well as state-of-the-art problem solving techniques. The hardware focus of the proposed curriculum would draw its resources from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology curriculum. The curriculum provides a fresh look at Electrical Engineering Technology curriculum from the perspective of System Design. It examines the subject areas that prepares the student to pursue the discipline of System Design from at least four different perspectives; via: 1) PLD/FPGA centric system design, 2) Microcontroller based Embedded System Design, 3) PC based Network-oriented Distributed System Design and 4) DSP based Real-time Processing based System Design1. The hardware focus is in the areas of PLD design, Analog Electronics Embedded System design, Electronic fabrication, Biomedical Electronics, Computer Networking, Distributed Systems and Digital Signal Processing (DSP). This proposed plan emphasizes on both disciplines (Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology and Computer Science), along with a solid math, science and general education background, to enable industry ready students to tackle the challenges of the future. The proposed integrated curriculum would empower the students to embark upon the path of a Life Long Learning. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.