Computer Engineering
University of Tartu Faculty of Science and Engineering
INTRODUCTION
Program level: bachelor studies (ISCED-97 level 5A1) Nominal study period and credits: 3 years, 180 ECTS Degree to be awarded: Bachelor of Science in Engineering Number of students in the program: 122 students (18.01.2012) Program manager: Karl Kruusamäe
Organisational structure and actors within
The 3-year Computer Engineering (CE) program was started in 2008. Although officially the program is managed by the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), a substantial amount of compulsory courses (minimum of 45 ECTS) are provided by the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science (Figure 1). The list of compulsory courses in the CE program is given in appendix 1.
The CE program is coordinated by program manager who is also the chairman for the CE program council. The program council consists of all the full professors and main lecturers of the CE curricula, one student and two representatives of employers. However, other relevant personnel, such as program manager from the Institute of Computer Science etc., have also been invited to the CE program council meetings. This council meets typically twice a year, i.e. once in a semester.
Figure 1.Location of Computer Engineering program in the organisational structure of the University of Tartu.
Univeristy of Tartu
Faculty of Science and Technology
(FST)
Institute of Physics
Physics program Computer Engineering
program Materials Science
program Institute of ...
(5 more)
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Institute of Computer Science
Institute of ... (2 more) Faculty of ...
While the program manager is responsible for planning, implementing, and reporting on the activities, he does not have financial control nor is he superior to the staff on the program. However, the program managers reports directly to vice-dean of studies at the FST and to the chief of academic affairs at the Institute of Physics (Figure 1). All the program managers of the FST constitute a study council chaired by vice-dean of studies; the study council gets together biweekly. The main objective of the study council is to oversee all curricula development and quality assurance processes related to teaching and learning at the FST.
Distinctive national conditions or circumstances
To date, Estonia has had an accreditation system for all the higher education programs, however, during 2009 to 2012, the Ministry of Education and Research will implement the transition from former accreditation system, in which individual study programmes were accredited, to quality assessment of study programme groups. This period is called transitional evaluation. Computer Engineering was one of the first programs that went through this evaluation, and University of Tartu attained the right to conduct studies of this program (appendix 2).
One noteworthy aspect affecting this CE program is that University of Tartu (UT) is considered as a conventional - academic - higher education institution. For that reason, its faculties are not permitted to award professional engineering degrees, mainly due to inactivity on the part of UT itself.
Relationship to CDIO
While the CE program is not part of CDIO, from the very beginning, the program council has been driving this curriculum to foster creativity, teamwork, practical skills, project-based learning, etc. Therefore in general, the CE program has the principles of CDIO in mind.
A. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM GOALS AND DESIGN
Program goals / learning outcomesComputer Engineering is regarded as the discipline that involves both the elements of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Engineers with both kinds of skill-sets and knowledge are required to design, create, implement and operate electronic devices that can be found everywhere around us.
The main goals of CE program are phrased as:
The general objective of the curriculum is to provide students with necessary skill-set and knowledge for the work in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) as a computer engineer. After completing the bachelor studies, student is applicable for Computer Engineering master's programme.
The learning outcomes of CE program state that:
After successful completion of CE program the student:
1) has a systematic understanding of fundamental concepts, theoretical principles and methodology inherent to computer engineering;
2) can independently gather and critically analyse information in the field of computer engineering and communicate the knowledge in an appropriate form (e.g. oral or written presentation) in Estonian as well as in English;
3) is able to write computer code using assembler and at least two higher-level programming languages;
4) understands the roles of individual computer components, is able to choose appropriate configuration (considering both price and performance) and can assemble this computer; 5) understands the organisation and architecture of computers and other electronic devices on a level that allows creation and troubleshooting of electronic devices;
6) has the ability to work independently or as a part of a larger team on a computer engineering project or task.
Considering the Bologna process, the 3-year CE program has its main output to the job market, hence the above stated learning outcomes focus on providing students with certain technical skills, such has programming, designing and debugging electronics, reporting on your work, etc. The following 2-year master program, which will not be described further in this report, is more fixed on fostering development of entrepreneurship and leadership in addition to specific technical know-how.
Validation with stakeholders
The CE program is intrinsically based on curricula recommendations by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), see appendix 3. The initial learning objectives as well as the course list have been derived from these guidelines.
All the learning outcomes need to fulfil the national requirements provided in Estonian Standard for Higher Education (appendix 4). Analysis on how the CE program meets these requirements was carried out as part of transitional evaluation in 2009 (appendix 5).
Although the UT has started to systematically gather feedback from the alumni which can possibly be used as a validation of learning outcomes, the CE program is so new (first graduates came in spring of 2011) that, thus far, there is practically no alumni to get the feedback from. However, at the FST, processes are being set up to systematically utilise alumni in program development process.
Program and course level connection
All the course level learning outcomes are specifications of learning objectives of the CE program. Program level learning outcomes (LO) in combination with LOs from ACM guidelines are given as an input to course development. Professors are required to meet these LOs in their courses. When new courses and/or professors are placed to the CE program, the program manager organises a discussion to explain the role of the course in the program. Feedback on how courses actually manage to fulfil the program LOs is obtained from professors themselves and also students by series of quality assurance meeting held at least once a year. Documentation (such as minutes of these meetings) is given to the vice-dean of the FST.
In 2010, analysis was conducted to see how program level LOs correspond to the learning outcomes of courses (appendix 6). In general, the result was positive, however this analysis lead to some rephrasing of program level learning outcomes.
Progression and coordination
At the Institute of Physics there are two concurrent processes to ensure coordination between different courses. A seminar called ‘From teacher to teacher’ includes the willing professors related to courses in all the programs of Institute of Physics. The seminars take place every month and their aim is to foster open discussion amongst teachers.
Also smaller and more focused seminars are held for professors responsible for specific field in the program. For example, minutes from the meeting of professors in the field of electrical engineering are given in appendix 7. At this meeting, the participating people were responsible for following courses at the CE program: Circuits and Signals, Analog Electronics, Digital Electronics, and Digital Signal Processing.
B.
DESCRIPTION OF COURSE GOALS AND DESIGN
A list of compulsory coursesList of courses in Computer Engineering program is given in appendix 1. According to the UT regulation of curricula, all students who major in Computer Engineering need to pass the modules 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 3.1, 5, and 7. Those student who choose a minor, may replace modules 2.2, 3.2, 4 from the other program. However, most students do not choose a minor, so they pass all the listed courses.
The course descriptions containing the intended learning outcomes for each course are available in the UT study information system (SIS): http://www.ut.ee/206621
Teaching/learning activities and assessment
A variety of different teaching and learning methods are concurrently implemented at the CE program: project-based learning, active lectures, seminars, skills-lab, peer reviewing, problem-based learning, etc. Teachers are encouraged to implement more active learning methods, especially problem-based learning. Also, developing communication skills is already existent course, is another important objective.
The very first semester the CE students take a course ‘Physical Concept of the World’, which is the general physics course in the program. The majority of the course is held as traditional lectures and in the middle of the semester, weekly seminars start. Throughout the course, there are tests that contribute to the final mark, while the course itself ends with a final exam. In ‘Computer Hardware II’ the benefits of e-learning have been utilised. Students have small quizzes for each lecture in e-learning environment Moodle; also students need to write a Wikipedia article in Estonian about a topic in the field of computer hardware. Students do peer-reviewing of each other’s articles.
Some of the project-based approaches are described in more detail in section C.ii.
Active learning
Implementing active learning in all the courses of the program has been and is one of the major areas of on-going development. Currently, it can be said that active learning is part of every course in some proportion. Though all the teachers agree that learn-by-doing is the best way to obtain engineering skills, utilising its full capacity in every course is subject of continuous support activities (see section D) directed to teachers of the program.
C. DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED THEMES
i.Introduction to higher education study and to engineering
From the beginning of the CE program, a course called ‘Introduction to Speciality’ (1 ECTS) has been held for 1st-year students. This course gives a brief but essential overview of studying at the University of Tartu. Moreover, presentations about the field of Computer Engineering and extracurricular activities related to CE are given. The course lasts only through September (the first month of academic year in Estonia) and is mostly given in a form of a seminar.
In autumn 2011, a new tradition – 1st-year student induction conference – was initiated. The conference is held on the first weekend of academic year (e.g. in 2011, it was 3-4 Sept). The conference is meant for all of the 1st year students of two faculties – the FST and the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.
During the two-day conference students meet with alumni, employers, university staff, older students of their speciality, etc. They have focused sessions specifically on their study program as well as big plenary talks about university learning and job market. The main objective of such conference is to get the students to see the bigger picture in respect to their speciality. Organising this conference is also one of the responsibilities of the study council of the FST.
ii. Training of engineering competences
Several courses have project-based approach. Furthermore, courses that provide students with specific technical skills are preceding or held concurrently to courses where they need to utilise these skills.
Object-oriented Programming
During the first semester student obtains know-how in programming and in spring there is a course on object-oriented programming, where all this is put into use on a small-scale software project carried out in small student-teams.
Computer Hardware Project
As a cap-stone project, students need to pass the course ‘Computer Hardware Project’. In this course, students have independent projects for which they need prior knowledge and skills obtained from most of courses in the program, e.g. ‘Electronics’, ‘Microprocessors’, ‘Technical Graphics’, etc.
Practical Works in Computer Hardware
In this first semester course, students perform fundamental tasks of a computer engineer, such as assembling a personal computer, setting up networking, installing operating systems, etc. All these tasks are separated into 8 labs and after each lab students are required to write reports. Writing these reports and receiving feedback on their writings, is providing students
with basic skills on academic writing. Here they learn preparing documents according to given instructions, including citing. All the reports contain a short analysis on activities or experimental results on e.g. computer performance testing.
iii. Thesis work
The learning outcomes for graduation thesis in Computer Engineering are:
Student:
1) can apply acquired knowledge in formulating scientific problems, in planning and conducting research, in making conclusions based on collected data, and in presenting results in written and oral form;
2) is able to find and analyse scientific information and can synthesise new knowledge for the speciality based on the previously available and collected scientific data;
3) has skills for composing and conducting a presentation in public and to express himself/herself in his/her speciality in written and oral form and to defend his/her thoughts; 4) understands the basic principles of ethics of science and is able to evaluate scientific value and applicability of studies in his/her speciality.
There are no strict rules to where students do their thesis work and who defines the project. Students are responsible for finding supervisors, and then, in combination with supervisors, they typically define the thesis project. The students who wish to defend their graduation thesis in June (which is the end of school year in Estonia) need to send the name of the supervisor to the program manager by 1st October. In October, based on received e-mails, the dean of FST corroborates the student-supervisor pairs for 1 year. Therefore, when student fails to defend his or hers project in the spring, he or she is required to renegotiate the supervisor.
Two sample theses can be found in appendices 8 and 9. These works represent the two main types of graduation theses. In appendix 8, Aare Puussaar has written a specification document for a scientific experimentation device, while, in appendix 9, Sven Kautlenbach has designed and implemented an electronic device for scientific measurements. That means, graduation thesis can be considered either as an extended capstone project, consisting of hands-on device building and a detailed report, or it can be pure technical documentation and research.
The default language of the graduation thesis is Estonian, though a student may apply for the right to write the thesis in English. The graduation thesis is defended in front of a panel consisting of at least one full professor, different lecturers from the program, and the program manager. The thesis is marked on the scale of A to F.
vi. Engineering workspaces
The courses of CE program take place mostly in two building: the Physics Building and the main building for the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science (FMCS). The FMCS building has been fully renovated about 10 years ago and can, thus, be considered fairly
modern. The Physics Building was built in the end of 70’s and no substantial renovation of the whole building has taken place. However, all the necessary auditoriums and engineering labs have been fully renewed during the past 6 years.
One of the requirements for a successful CE program is ever up-to-date equipment for students to practice on. All the engineering labs have relatively up-to-date equipment and upgrading the inventory is a continuous process dependent on the budget of institute as well as different funding possibilities from EU and the state. Substantial part of the funding for equipping the engineering labs comes from Estonian Information Technology Foundation
( http://www.eitsa.ee/?url=eitf ).
Currently there are two engineering labs that are only for the CE students at the Physics Building, all other labs and auditoriums are shared with other programs both in the Physics and FMCS buildings. The CE students have 24-7 access to the two engineering labs in the Physics Building. The equipment of these labs is described in Estonian on the labs’ webpage
( http://digi.physic.ut.ee/mw/index.php/Vahendid ).
For quiet reading and studying, the best location is the Library of UT, which is situated at the distance of 5-minute-walk from the Physics Building.
v. Student – work life connection
For contextualising their studies at the university, two processes are most relevant:
1) 1st-year student induction conference – students meet with career counsellors, alumni, and employers.
2) In the course of ‘Introduction to Speciality’ students get to know different research groups and activities that take in CE students.
Three large projects that take in CE students form the 1st semester are: 1) Estonian Students Satellite ESTCUBE ( http://www.estcube.eu/ )
2) National Robotics Competition ROBOTEX ( http://www.robotex.ee/ ); this activity is organised at the UT by the Robotics Club ( http://www.ut.ee/robotiklubi ).
3) The Science Bus ( http://teadusbuss.ee/ ) focuses on popularising natural sciences amongst pupils.
The robotics club implements a system where students earn their robot building budget from the companies. Teams of robot builders need to justify why they need additional budget in front of representatives of variety of engineering companies.
Also, all the first year students are strongly encouraged to get involved with either the fore mentioned projects or to find a research group to work with. All the interested research groups have the possibility to introduce themselves at the ‘Introduction to Speciality’ course.
Currently there are no systematic meetings between the possible employers and CE students. A near-future plan is to create an annual job fair for future employers of CE students.
D. DESCRIPTION OF CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT
For systematic quality assessment and assurance, two levels of approaches need to be recognised: university and faculty level. Often these processes can interweave, for example, the university gathers regular feedback from students on all the courses they take, while it is up to faculty to decide what to do with all this data.
Some of the quality assessment processes organised at the university level:
1) Compulsory student feedback on every course via Study Information System (SIS); 2) Final year students give optional feedback on their whole program via SIS;
3) In 2011, gathering feedback from alumni was initiated;
4) Program managers conduct self-evaluation of the program in every three years (appendix 10);
5) Variety of different feedback required by specific department/unit of the UT. Documentation regarding these processes was excluded from current report to
In 2009 the FST started a systematic approach to quality assurance. The study council of the FST is leading all the quality assurance processes at the faculty. List of activities conducted and on-going at the FST include:
1) 2009-2010 organisational self-evaluations of all the FST with its institutes (appendix 11);
2) 2010 external assessors’ report on the FST self-evaluations (appendix 12); 3) 2010-2011 follow-up to self-evaluations: 3 improvement projects (appendix 13);
a. Gathering and utilising feedback from different stakeholders b. Fostering development of teaching skills among teachers
c. Implementation of processes to consider the differences of students to enable better student motivation and learning
Gathering and utilising feedback from different stakeholders Students
In 2010, the FST study council implemented a systematic process to utilise feedback from the SIS given to every course at the UT. One particular question, asking the students to give an overall mark (0-5 or F to A) to a course, was set as a primary indicator. If an average mark is less than 3, it would require instant attention from the program manager. Every semester tables of all the courses of a program with these marks (appendix 14) are used by the study council.
In 2011, first yearly meetings with final year students of a program were implemented. The idea is for the program manager to personally meet with final year students and obtain qualitative feedback on the program. Minutes of this type of meeting (appendix 15) in
combination with SIS feedback on program will be used as an input to curriculum development.
Staff
A process to collect feedback from the teachers and other staff of institutes has been proposed. Relevant documentation is generated though not yet implemented. Currently no systematic feedback is gathered from the staff.
Alumni
The processes to use the feedback data from alumni has been initiated, though thus far the CE program has very few graduates. First feedback relevant to CE program will probably be gathered in three years. The study council of FST is currently designing a general process of considering alumni feedback which will also be implemented in the CE program in future.
Fostering development of teaching skills amongst the staff
In late 2010, a new series of seminars called ‘From teacher to teacher’ were started. The main goal of these seminars is to provide the most active part of teaching staff with an environment to share teaching experiences. By creating such an environment, other teachers of lesser interest in self-development in teaching skills are also expected to gradually partake in these seminars. In the Institute of Physics, the pilot of such seminars was developed and executed. A similar series of seminars is currently starting at the Institute of Computer Science (at the FMCS), hence, the teaching staff of CE program, who do come from both institutes, is well supported through these seminars.
At a university level there is web-based system for viewing all the upcoming trainings for university staff. Through these seminars teachers are encouraged to use this system and to partake in those teaching and learning trainings.
Processes to enhance student learning and motivation
In 2010, the FST started a system of teaching assistants in response to three issues: 1) Students (especially during first year) require additional tutoring while learning 2) Teachers need assistants to provide such tutoring
LIST OF APPENDICES
1. Computer Engineering course list
2. Results of the Transitional Evaluations in Estonia (2009-2012)
3. CE2004: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Computer
Engineering
4. Kõrgharidusstandardi (KHS) lisa 1 (in Estonian)
5. Eneseanalüüsi alus õpiväljundite kõrvutamiseks kõrgharidusstandardiga (in Estonian) 6. Arvutitehnika õppekava sidususe analüüs (in Estonian)
7. AT Elektroonika mooduli sidususe koosolek 2011-04-14 (in Estonian) 8. Aare Puussaar’s graduation thesis (in English with abstract in Estonian) 9. Sven Kautlenbach’s graduation thesis (in Estonian with abstract in English) 10.Internal self-evaluation report (in Estonian)
11.Organisational self-evaluation (in Estonian)
12.Assessor feedback on organisational self-evaluation (in Estonian) 13.Report on 3 improvement areas in 2010/2011 (in Estonian)
14.Example of the table of all the courses in CE program with generalised student feedback (in Estonian)
