Textbook principles to communications hardware: making it work

Undergraduate courses in communications traditionally focus on classical communications theory with little attention given to the actual implementation aspects of analog or digital systems. For the most part, the hardware implementation is predisposed to the electronics curriculum. This paper details a unique new effort in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the United States Military Academy to combine the theoretical aspects of communications systems design with integrated circuit implementation. Through a new project design approach, cadets make the theory of communications systems come to real life using a design, build, test process. It is shown that this is a very effective method to overcome the obstacles in making the transition from theory to practice.