Shared projects with a multi-sub-disciplinary flavor - providing integration and context in a new ECE spiral curriculum

A new spiral curriculum in Electrical Engineering was launched in the ECE Department of the University of Detroit Mercy in Fall 2005. The prime motivation was to address several critical issues - the lack of student motivation, the need to introduce the teaching of innovation across the curriculum, and adoption of effective teaching pedagogies that ensured learning. A key aspect of the curricular changes was the formulation and use of shared projects that highlighted the interdependencies between the various sub-disciplines of Electrical Engineering, thus enhancing the contextual setting of the curriculum. This paper provides technical details for these shared projects and reflects on our experience in their use.