Listed below are a few of the questions I am frequently asked by students who I advise or who are enrolled in my courses. Check back for updates to this list, I will update it as new questions occur to me.
Study plans and courses - graduate

Q: What courses do I have to take?

A: Each program has a different set of core course requirements. You can find the ECE core requirements here. In addition, you have to pick a concentration area and take several courses in that area. These concentration area courses are listed here. Finally, the Masters requires a total of 30 credits. You may take any ECE graduate course (NIS, CpE, or EE 500 level or above) to fill out the total number of credits.



Q: I have taken the equivalent of the ECE core courses as undergraduate courses at my school. How can I be excused from taking these courses?

A: The ECE core graduate courses are required of all ECE graduate students. Undergraduate courses with similar titles or even using the same textbook are unlikely to be covered at the same depth. We feel that it is important for Stevens ECE graduate students to have demonstrated an understanding of certain key topics to be awarded a graduate degree, so we generally don't waive these requirements. If you feel very strongly and can demonstrate mastery of the subject matter in a core graduate course, talk to your advisor to see if there is any option of taking a different course.


Q: Which courses should I take now?

A: I generally tell the students I advise to start their first semester with one or two core courses, one or two courses from their concentration , and an elective course, adding up to three courses for a full-time student. You should take a core course in the first semester to fullfil these core requirements and to get some of the background that is needed in other courses. I generally don't recommend taking all three core courses in the first semester because this might be a difficult course load to start with.


Q: What is required for a study plan?

A: Everyone has to complete a study plan before they are too far into the program. Officially, the study plan needs to be completed before you take your 4th course. Here is the policy that spell this out. You can find information on the study plan form here. and here.


Q: What concentration area should I pick (or) which concentration area will enable me to get the best job?

A: The right concentration area for you is a personal matter. I happen to find Wireless, Security, Signal Processing, Embedded Systems, and such areas as the most interesting, but that has nothing to do with you. As for what area will get you the best job, that requires predicting the future. Even if we had perfect knowledge about what could get the best job today, things will certainly change by the time you complete your degree. I think the best choice is the one you are most passionate about. If you really enjoy what you are doing, you will succeed in your career. If you picked an area of study because it was the one you thought would give you the best chance to get a job, all you will be left with is a job you have to go to every day, which you might hate.


Q: But I have no idea what concentration area is best for me. Can you pick one for me?

A: The short answer is "no." The longer and slightly more useful area is: Look through the concentrations and you will see each course is hyperlinked to a description of the course. Use that information to see what the courses are about to help in your decision. If you are just starting your program, mischoosing a concentration course is not the end of the world, you can change your concentration later, having taken only one course or so, and use the course you took as an elective (there are about 4 in the program). If you want to hedge you bets most effectively, draw a Venn diagram of the concentration courses and pick the course that is in the maximum number of interesting concentrations.


Q: I want to register for your graduate course XYZ and the registrar says it is closed. Can you sign me into the course?

A: If the course is not one of mine, you will need to talk to the instructor. If it is one of mine, then it is either an on-campus or on-line course. I will (within reason) always increase the size or number of sections of an on-line course to admit anyone who wants to take the course. If the course is one of my on-campus courses, there are some practical limits: NIS/CpE-691 follows a strict structure involving student seminars that doesn't give me flexibility to arbitrarily add more students. EE/NIS/TM-584 has a higher class size limit, but it seems to always be a popular course that fills up early. If you really want to take the on-campus version of these courses (or are required to for some reason), keep watching the registrar's web site to see if the course opens up - someone is likely to drop it at the last minute and you can take their place. There is a practical limit to these classes and I always get serveral requests for special consideration and the answer is always the same as I have given here. I offer WebCampus sections of most of these courses in parallel with the on-campus sections, so that is always an option (the content is identical and students tell me the experience is equivalent).


Q: When will you be offering the graduate course XXX?

A: EE/NIS/TM-584 is offered every Fall on-campus and (depending on enrollment) Fall, Spring, Spring II and Summer on WebCampus. NIS/CpE-691 is offered every Spring on-campus and, like '584, is offered up to four times a year on WebCampus. EE-585 is also offered four times a year on WebCampus, and starting Spring 2013, on-campus. Depending on enrollment, I may offer EE585 Spring and Fall on-campus. For other graduate courses offered by the department, schedules vary from year to year, but it is generally a good starting place to look at last year's offerings to see what is likely to be offered this year. Remember that Spring and Fall course schedules are generally different.

Study plans and courses - undergraduate


Q: What course choices do I have to take?

A: Typical program course sequences are here for EE students and here for CpE students, while the study plan templates are here for EE's and here for CpE's.


Q: Which electives should I take?

A: EE584, EE585, and CpE691 are always my favorites... Seriously, figure out your area of interest (e.g., DSP, communications, security, hardware, etc.) and we can talk about the courses that fit best. You have the option of taking undergraduate elective courses or 500-level ECE graduate courses without any special arrangement. If you have a sufficient GPA, you also can get permission to take 600-level ECE courses as undergraduate electives. Remember that many of the required CpE courses might make good EE electives, and vice versa.

Financial, assistantships, etc.


Q: How much do I have to pay Stevens?

A: I have no idea. As a faculty member, I deal with academic questions. I can tell you that it costs much more per credit than it did when I was an undergraduate and graduate student, but the average starting salary of an engineer has increased even more over that period.



Q: Do you have any funded assistantships?

A: If I did, you would see a line of students at my door applying for them.


Q: How can I get an assistantship?

A: Your chances of getting an assistantship during your first semester are extremely small. This is the same question that many 2nd or 3rd semester students are asking. You chances of getting an assistantship are best if you ask a professor from whom you have taken a course since they have had a chance to see the quality of your work. If you took one of my courses last semester and want to check with me, see the answer to the previous question.

Grading

Q: Can I do extra credit work to improve my grade?

A: During the semester, all of my assignments leave room for extra credit. After the semester, there are no "re-dos." I don't think it would be fair to offer one student an option of changing their grade without offering the same chance to everyone. Naturally, everyone would want to see if they had done enough during the semester to qualify for the grade they wanted and, if they did not, everyone would do a little more. If we carry this to the limit, the semester would never end. The simple solution is no extra credit after the course is complete. Of course, if you are dissatisfied with your final course grade, you always have the option of retaking the course in the future. Unless you have done poorly in the course after taking it 2 or 3 times, I'd be happy to let you take it again..


Q: Where can I find the grades in my course?

A: I use WebCT, Elearn, Moodle or the course management system du jour for all of my courses. You can find assignment grades in the course gradebook. I will also post final grades there.


Q: I got an F in one of your courses and I need to have my grade changed. What do I have to do?

A: I have recently started to take flying lessons for a Private Pilots License. I understand that if you fail your written or oral examinations or the checkride (where you demonstrate your ability to fly the plane to an FAA approved examiner), you can do it all over again on a subsequent test or flight. Apparently, you can do this as many times as you want to try. It seems a little frightening that a person could fail to pass the test 14 times and succeed on the 15th try, then being able to fly a plane on their own - potentially a large plane with a number of passengers... Some students apparently think we should run our courses the same way but, alas, we don't. Of course, if you were to retake an FAA test or take another checkride, you would have to pay separately for each attempt and would probably also need to retake some of the flight training and ground school, so maybe this isn't so different...

Regarding failures in my courses, first, you should investigate the possibility of time travel to go back to the beginning of the course to advise yourself to avoid the pitfall that caused you to get an F or you could try slipping into a parallel universe where you passed the course. Generally plagiarism in a graduate course or completely ignoring assignments in a graduate or undergraduate course would be the pitfalls you should warn yourself about. If these options prove to be impractical, there are academic appeals processes. For graduate students who get an F because of academic impropriety, Dean Suffel is chair of the committee that investigates and adjudicates appeals. Be advised that I have never had a final grade overturned on appeal. More details about my policies can be found here or in the introductory material for the specific course.

Q: What about the Honor System?

A: As a Stevens graduate and a faculty member of the Honor Board Advisory Council, I am fully committed to the Stevens Honor System. The Honor System at Stevens is a priviledge extended to undergraduates, providing them peer investigation and adjudication of major infractions (issues involving more than 13% of the final course grade). Less major infractions are optionally investigated and adjudicated by the professor, but the professor's decision can be appealed to the Honor Board. As I will tell you in all of my undergraduate classes, I take the Honor System VERY seriously and will do my best to abide by all of my obligations. For one thing, I will not grade unpledged work, as the Honor Board Constitution prohibits me from doing so. As the Honor System requires, I will not penalize unpledged work, I just ask that you resubmit a pledged copy. In return, I expect that you will abide by the Honor System and will not plagiarize, share individual work or otherwise violate the letter and spirit of the Honor System. Should you violate your obligation, I will apply the full measure of punishment the system allows.

Unfortunately, the Stevens Honor System does not afford the same privileges to graduate students or to undergraduates in graduate courses. For these situations, I will investigate and adjudicate all academic improprieties. I believe that students in graduate courses, generally being more mature students than most undergraduates, should be even more responsible for their behavior, so I expect at least the same standard of honorable behavior. Deviations from this standard have and will continue to result in students having their final grade reduced, up to and including failing the course.

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This page was last updated on: February 9, 2013