ECE General Education Requirement Information
While a comprehensive understanding of science and mathematics is central and foundational to effective engineering practice, real-world engineering problems are both complex and situated within dynamic social, political, and cultural contexts. Therefore, well-rounded engineering curricula must also include courses that encompass the breadth of human experience and culture, both past and present. Such courses may include, but are not limited to, those that explore individual behavior, social and political structures, aesthetic values, modes and dynamics of communication, philosophical and ethical thought, and cognitive processes. These types of courses provide engineering students with a framework for rational inquiry, critical evaluation, and judgment when dealing with issues that are non-quantifiable, ambiguous, and/or controversial. In addition, they offer engineering students the opportunity to develop interests and insights that will deepen their appreciation for the diversity of the world in which they live and work.
Based on these premises, the goals of the ECE General Education Program are to
Provide the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context.
Support and complement the technical content of the engineering curricula through coursework that emphasizes such skills as written communication, oral communication, information literacy, cultural awareness, leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, and managing change.
These goals are consistent with the objectives of the College of Engineering’s Engineer of 2020 initiative (Engineering Faculty Document 15-06), as well as the objectives of Purdue University’s Undergraduate Outcomes-Based Curriculum (University Senate Document 11-7).
To these ends, all B.S. students in Electrical and Computer Engineering are required to complete the ECE General Education Program described below. This program is consistent with the College of Engineering General Education Program (Engineering Faculty Documents 43-13 and 39-14).
Foundational General Education Electives
Students must select from the list of courses approved by the University Curriculum Council (UCC) to satisfy each of the following six Foundational Learning Outcomes of the University Core Requirements-the Science and Quantitative Reasoning Foundational Outcomes are satisfied elsewhere in the BSCMPE curriculum.
Some courses may have been approved to meet more than one of the Foundational Learning Outcomes, so fewer than six courses can be used to fulfill this condition. There is no minimum number of credit hours needed to satisfy this component of the College of Engineering General Education Program. If a course taken to fulfill some other EE/CMPE degree requirement has also been approved as satisfying one or more of these Engineering Foundational Learning Outcomes, then those Engineering Foundational Learning Outcomes need not be satisfied again within the ECE General Education Program.
Students must earn a grade of C- or better in courses used to satisfy this component of the ECE General Education Program. The pertinent Foundational Learning Outcomes are defined as follows:
- Written Communication (satisfied as an FYE requirement)
- Oral Communication (satisfied as an FYE requirement)
- Information Literacy
- Human Cultures: Humanities
- Human Cultures: Behavioral/Social Science
- Science, Technology & Society
