ECE Today
Contents
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Building Partnerships
to Benefit Students
(continued from cover)
A New Space for a
New Curriculum
Faculty Profiles
Student Profiles
Alumna Profile,
Faculty Notes
Staff Profiles
Writer
Charlie Feigenoff
Editor
Josie Pipkin
Graphic Design
Travis Searcy,
Mountain High Media
Photography
Tom Cogill
ECE News is published by the
University of Virginia School of
Engineering and Applied Science
Charles L. Brown Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering.
An online version of the magazine is
available at www.seas.virginia.edu/
pubs/ece_newsletter.
Send address corrections to the
Charles L. Brown Department
of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, P.O. Box 400743,
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4743, or
email [email protected].
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
In a fundamental way, the goal of the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering is to find ways to make better, more productive connections. This idea most
obviously drives our research, but it also has motivated us as we reconsider our curriculum. We
are trying to more effectively bridge gaps between theory and practice, lecture and lab, devices and
systems. We are also attempting to integrate topics that have been treated in isolation in the past.
It would be difficult to overemphasize the transformation this entails. Our transition to a more
hands-on, integrated curriculum requires us to change not only what we teach, but how and
where we teach it. Our new, three-course Fundamentals sequence (the FUN classes) illustrates
the difference. We have combined Linear Circuits, Electronics, and Signals and Systems —
previously offered sequentially — into an interconnected series of breadth-first and progressively
more-advanced classes so that we can underscore the interrelationships among these topics. To
drive these connections home, we’ve organized these courses as studios, with teams of student
collaborators tackling a series of hands-on projects over the course of the semester that are
integrated spatially and temporally with the lectures. This new style of pedagogy is, in turn,
causing us to reconfigure classroom space in a building designed for engineering in the late 1940s!
The process of putting this transformation in place has also been one of making connections.
For example, we’ve made connections with National Instruments (thanks in part to Eric Starkloff
(EE ’97), the company’s executive vice president of global sales and marketing), a company
that has introduced a range of compact, highly capable, affordable devices that are ideal for
studio use. This connection has blossomed into a partnership that includes internships and
career opportunities for our students (such as Kyle Teegarden (EE ’14), past president of IEEE
@ U.Va.), as well as funding for equipment and space. And we have been pleased to reconnect
with alumni like Dudley White (EE ’76, ’77) and his wife, Barbara (AE ’81), whose support for
experiential learning includes substantial funding for Thornton Hall renovations.
The theme of connections is also guiding us as we renew and expand our faculty. We chose the
three new professors highlighted in this newsletter — Andreas Beling, Steven Bowers and Daniel
Weller — not only for the tremendous promise of their research and teaching, but also because
their expertise intersects with strengths in the department and around the University. They will
be instrumental in building the centers of excellence that distinguish our department and prepare
our students for successful careers.
The net effect of the connections we’ve made this year and will continue to make into the
future will be a stronger, more agile, more relevant department, seen as a world-class leader in
both education and research.
John Lach
Professor and Department Chair
ECE NEWS
2
Spring 2015