Minutes of the EEE Graduate Committee – 5/13/05

Present: Milica Markovic, Colinge, Kumar, Matthews, Heedley, Oldenburg, Vaziri

1. There was brief discussion of the announcement of Dean Braja Das’ retirement effective summer 2006. Oldenburg informed the committee that graduate applications for next fall had finally begun to arrive at his office, but the number was small and there were over 100 applications still undergoing processing at Graduate Admissions. Faculty should make a final check of fall schedule of graduate classes to make sure that the times and rooms for the classes are appropriate. CASPER registration for fall begins on June 20.

2. Kumar requested that the consideration of the restructuring of EEE 211, 212, and 213 be postponed until the first meeting in the fall, since there were still some issues for the Communication Systems area faculty to resolve. EEE 211 and 213 are currently listed in the Schedule of Classes for fall. Any changes must be discussed with Ramesh before CASPER registration opens.

3. Oldenburg presented a first draft of Project Guidelines for consideration by the committee. It was agreed that this document should reflect a minimum set of guidelines, and that the chairperson of the project committee should be able to add additional requirements as necessary to fit individual students and specific project requirements. The draft will be posted on the Graduate Committee web site in MS Word format to facilitate the suggestion of modifications for the next draft. All suggestions should be forwarded to Oldenburg before July 1, at which time the next draft will be posted.

4. Currently, the elective area graduate advisors have been drafted by default and include: Control Systems – Setlur; Communication Systems – Kumar; Power Systems – Gonen; Microelectronic Design – Heedley; Computer Architecture & Digital Systems – Vadhva. Beginning with the class entering in the fall, students will be required to follow the new Graduate Program in the on-line CSUS Catalog. Under the new requirements, elective area advisors are required to approve an elective plan of study for graduate students by the end of the students’ first semester. (Week 13 of the semester has been specified as the “advising week”.) Formal selection of the elective area advisors must be done by the Committee before advising begins.

5. Oldenburg presented a revision of the EEE Comprehensive Examination – Format, which will be used next fall. It incorporates the additional oral examination format guidelines recommended by the Committee at its last meeting. The format is posted on the Committee web site for easy reference.

6. Agenda items for the first meeting of the Committee in the fall will include the report on the restructuring of the three Communication Systems courses, and further consideration of the revised draft of Project Guidelines.