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Session 2648

A Comprehensive Telecommunications Degree for Engineering Technology

Walter E. Thain, Jr. and Thomas J. Fallon Southern Polytechnic State University

Abstract

Southern Polytechnic State University’s (SPSU) Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) Department has a new multidisciplinary Baccalaureate degree program in Telecommunication Engineering Technology (BSTCET). The degree program includes five new ECET courses and four from the School of Management. The primary objective of the program is to provide the student with a strong practical and theoretical foundation in telecommunications.

The five technical courses in the BSTCET degree are designed to teach students about such topics as communication protocols, wide- and local-area networks, managing network resources, Internet-related concepts and development, and network security issues. These courses are supported by numerous hands-on laboratory experiences. The four management courses provide students with the principles necessary to manage people and projects. This paper discusses issues considered during the development of the program, classroom and laboratory curricula, problems confronting the program today, and assessment.

I. Introduction

Tremendous growth in the telecommunications industry has inspired a similar growth in education curricula supporting the requirements of this industry. Corporations use the Internet as a means to reach customers, as a wide-area network (WAN) to share information between organizational entities, and increasingly as a medium to transport voice and video information. Corporations today are increasingly dependent on their LANs (local area networks) and WANs as an information resource as well as for revenue generation. In particular, World-Wide Web and Internet applications are being developed and refined so that customers can receive all necessary product information, place orders, and receive product support directly from the computers in their offices and homes, reducing or eliminating the need to interact with the vendor’s staff.

This new business model requires synergy between a number of groups within a corporation that traditionally operate in a more autonomous fashion. One of the most valuable assets in this new type of corporation is an employee that has a good understanding of the technical aspects of a computer network, how networks under gird server-based applications, and how to manage and optimize these resources.1

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Thain Jr., W. E., & Fallon, T. (2001, June), A Comprehensive Telecommunications Degree For Engineering Technology Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9019