New Approaches Coming to UC Merced Electrical Engineering Department

A team of faculty, staff, educational and career experts and previous students will redesign classes that will bring a stronger understanding across these courses. By rethinking how these courses are taught, the program seeks to build a more cohesive and effective learning pathway.

The team will implement "design thinking," a management sciences concept that guides people to engage and work together better and in a structured manner. Electrical engineering faculty will work together along with experts from other areas, such as career specialists, LatinX experts, education researchers and industry professionals in a structured process to redesign courses.

In addition to internal partners, the research team is collaborating with the University of San Diego and Iowa State University, two institutions whose earlier RED projects in the program offer crucial evidence.

"We are hoping to adapt prior successful strategies to revolutionize this culture in our department and then share this process with other departments and institutions," said Professor Ayush Pandey. "We anticipate that electrical engineering faculty will work as a stronger collective group toward the department's pedagogical efforts, and students who graduate from our program will have stronger professional preparation and a better sense of what real-world engineering is like in the field."