Personal and wireless communications and the BSEE curriculum

The personal and wireless communication industry is expected to be a major employer of electrical engineers in the future. One only has to look at the current array of cellular telephones to envision the technologies necessary for their design. These include communication theory, digital signal processing, RF design, monolithic IC design, VLSI, battery technology, and antenna design. Coupled with these technologies are the manufacturing needs of flexible PC board design, EMC compatibility issues, electromagnetic safety issues, and the human factors needs of mechanical design and human interfaces. We compare these industrial needs to the standard BSEE curriculum. We discuss modifications to current courses and possible new courses. We conclude with a projection of a personal and wireless communications curriculum.