In addition to teaching, I have been involved with other aspects of education, e.g.

Some "educational" articles resulting from these actvities are listed below along with their abstracts.

The New Electrical Engineering Curriculum at the University of Southern California

Hans H. Kuehl and Jerry M. Mendel
presented at: 1997 ASEE Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI

In November, 1993, the University of Southern California Electrical Engineering Department created a task force to review the undergraduate curriculum and develop a new and innovative electrical engineering curriculum. The task force, comprised of faculty representatitves from all fields of electrical engineering within the Department, devoted many hours during a period of three years to a thorough review and a substantial revision of the undergraduate curriculum. This paper describes the resulting new curriculum, which became effective in the fall of 1996. During the creation of the new curriculum, the task force was guided by several broad principles and desired objectives which the members believed were of major importance to a superior and relevant undergraduate curriculum. These included:

Fundamentals: The undergraduate curriculum must provide a basic grounding in the fundamentals of mathematics, basic sciences, engineering, as well as appreciable content in humanities and social sciences.

Flexibility: A greater opportunity for choice is appropriate, including a wider variety of up-to-date specializations from which students may choose.

Depth: A limited degree of specialization in at least one area of the major is desirable in order to prepare the graduate adequately to enter the engineering profession.

Breadth: Breadth in the major field is of prime importance to engineers involved in the development of the innovative products in today's rapidly changing workplace.

Design: The EE graduate must have the capability to delineate and solve in a practical way the engineering problems which are encountered during his/her career. Engineering design is usually a major component of the solution process; thus, the undergraduate curriculum should include a substantial design experience.

Reduction in Total Units: The total number of required units should be reduced, if possible, from the existing number in order to facilitate graduation within four years.

Innovation: The new curriculum should contain distinctive and innovative features which derive from particular strengths at USC and which set it apart from other EE programs.

Establishing Academic Programs in Integrated Media Systems - How One University Did It, and Why

Jerry M. Mendel
IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, January 1999

Abstract

This paper describes five factors that the author believes are necessary to create degree programs in integrated media systems. It then describes three masters programs and two undergraduate minors programs that have been created at the University of Southern California. It not only describes the development of these programs, but it also provides lessons that have been learned along the way, lessons that may help expedite the development of similar programs at other universities. Hence, this article represents a collection of five case studies in the design of degree programs in integrated media systems.