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I Session 1532 -—— . .... Military Communications Graduate Education Curriculum

Major (Dr.) Gerald C. Geracel Captain (Dr.) Richard A. Raines Major (Dr.) Robert F. Mills Dr. Andrew J. Terzuoli Dr. Byron M. Welsh Dr. Bruce W. Suter

Graduate School of Engineering Air Force Institute of Technology

Abstract -- The dawning of the information age with its diversity of communications and computer systems poses a formidable challenge to the graduate student of “communications engineering”. To keep pace with this expanding field graduate communications engineering students at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) advance through an integrated curriculum that weaves a web of connections between traditional analog/digital communication theory, discrete signal processing, communications/computer networks, spread spectrum techniques, and coherent applications sequences of courses in military communications, radar, stealth, and antenna engineering. The approach is to teach broad system level concepts and analyses first followed by in depth treatments of the pertinent subtopics. This ensures that the engineer always has the ‘~orest” in mind while he or she tackles the “trees”. Furthermore, the applications courses “close the loop” by reemphasizing system level concepts and exploiting the deep analytic tools developed earlier. The program culminates in a thesis that addresses an immediate aerospace communication problem. In addition to a detailed description of the AFIT communication engineering program, this paper explores the potential academic alternatives that merging technologies and techniques demand.

I. INTRODUCTION

The School of Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) grants degrees at both the Masters and PhD level in numerous engineering and science disciplines. The diverse student population comes from the military services, numerous US government agencies, foreign countries, and the civilian population at 2 large. AFIT’s graduate programs are rigorous and demanding yet are dedicated to being student centered and 3 responsive to the students’ prospective employers’ needs without compromising educational excellence. This paper focuses on the communication engineering curriculum and how it serves students, employers, and the overall US aerospace research effort. We show what drives and shapes the curriculum and how the curriculum

‘ The authors are members of the graduate school faculty in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. 2 All Masters degrees require at least 12 quarter hours of successful thesis work. 3 For example, the computer and electrical engineering department has always received the longest ABET accreditation term possible.

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Mills, M. D. R. F., & Gerace, M. D. G. C., & Welsh, D. B. M., & Suter, D. B. W., & Terzuoli, D. A. J., & Raines, C. D. R. A. (1996, June), Military Communications Graduate Education Curriculum Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--6192