A downsized, laboratory-intensive curriculum in electrical engineering

The Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas adopted a new curriculum, which is laboratory intensive, in response to employer feedback on the lack of sufficient practical experience of our graduates and student requests for more laboratories. At the same time, keeping in line with a national trend to downsize curricula, the semester hours required for the bachelor's degree were reduced from 134 to 126. The effort to reach these two objectives spanned several years, required compromises by some of the faculty, and eventually involved other departments in the college. This paper discusses the motivation to go to a downsized laboratory-intensive curriculum, the time and effort required to implement it, the impact on budgets and faculty teaching loads, and the initial and resulting curricula. The result is a streamlined curriculum that is more than adequate for a successful career in engineering or progression into graduate school.