At ECE faculty retreat in Fall'08 it was decided to grow Energy Systems educational and research programs. At the beginning of this year ECE had two open tenure-track faculty positions in Energy Systems which were taken away due to the budget cuts. It is ECE faculty believe that regardless of the current situation we have to continue our efforts to develop strong educational and research programs in Energy System. A number of ECE faculty is involved in research that can be applied to Energy area. With appropriate incentives some faculty can move in that direction. We plan to continue using soft money, if available, to hire fixed-term instructors to teach energy classes and search for research professors. The main priority is to rebuild Energy System core faculty by hiring tenure track faculty.

Program assessment led to following changes to Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer Engineering (CMPE) BS programs: •providing more focus: 6 new tracks •increasing design content: freshman 3-quarter sequence introduces design and experimentation; shifting emphasis in other courses •teaching modern and relevant content: Energy Systems track and energy related topics in sophomore and junior courses •emphasis on “soft” skills: new ECE courses; new course content and emphasis in existing courses; new ECE 411 course •attracting and retaining more students: introductory ECE 101 course will enable undecided students to explore ECE as potential field of study; emphasis on design and student engagement in their learning should lead to their better academic success and retention •reducing the number of credits from over 190 to 180: many programs in the region and nationally are doing the same With the exception of item 3. all of the above will utilize existing resources.

Offer more and better assistantships and/or scholarships for our own BS graduates to continue to Master and PhD programs. Visit four-year colleges and universities without PhD programs in the Northwest to attract graduate students. Establish scholarships for incoming high-quality graduate students. Continue developing pathway programs for non-traditional (students with undergraduate degree not in EE or CMPE) students. Enhance student services for underrepresented students. Developing collaborations with overseas university to enhance participation of their students in our graduate programs. Improve and enhance advising for graduate students and better financial support should improve retention and graduation rate.

Hiring well-established research professors to already active research group by developing attractive and creative hiring packages. Mentoring and assistance to new junior faculty to ensure successful development in academic and research programs. Increase faculty incentives to growth their research programs through improved staff support and scholarship support to attract high quality graduate students. Developing lab facilities for research active faculty. Special Assistantships to our own best BS graduates that continue in our graduate programs. The remodeling in LL FAB will add new teaching labs and new research lab to our physical infrastructure. To help with these efforts PSU support staff and policies must be improved in order to better serve ongoing and new scholarship. Improving the foundation upon which scholarship rests will produce higher returns in research dollars, attract better quality graduate students, and allow for the department to grow successfully.