What is all this talk about a new curriculum for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT? Yes, the department is planning major changes in the philosophy, the structure, and the contents of its professional curricula, for students who enter MIT as freshmen in 1993 and beyond. This talk will describe the ideas behind the changes, the plans in detail, and the current status of the whole endeavor.
Today undergraduate education is structured, mostly centered in the classroom, whereas graduate education is unstructured, largely research oriented,and done more by the apprenticeship system. The proposed new curricula extend the structured property through the fifth year. Students will get a masters of engineering and a bachelor of science together. The proposed M.Eng. program has requirements that start with the General Institute Requirements and end with 42 units of Grad (A) subjects and a 24-unit master's level thesis.
The two bachelor's degree programs, in EE and in CS, will remain, with minor modifications. It is expected that about a third of the students will stop at that level, and the other two thirds will go on for the M.Eng. The department's highly successful doctoral program will be unchanged.
During Fall 1992 the MIT faculty will vote to approve the new M.Eng. degree, which is needed for these curricula.