Developing an Elective Course on Satellite Communications in Undergraduate Electrical Engineering Curriculum
Habib Rahman

Abstract
This paper presents backgrounds for developing an unconventional elective course on satellite communications in undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum at Saint Louis University to cope with the changing discipline boundaries, and provides a short and concise treatment of materials that are unconventional to electrical engineering discipline. The explosive growth of communications satellites and the perceived potential of the medium for novel applications have generated intense interests in both the government and private sectors. The satellite communications engineering is the outcome of such diverse topics as orbital mechanics, electromagnetic fields and waves, radio electronics, and communication theory. This course is an attempt to include materials from these areas useful to understand the overall concepts of satellite communications. Mathematical rigors and complexities are purposely avoided in many cases to make it more enjoyable and at the same time comprehensible to students. It provides a broad coverage of topics, in some cases very briefly, as practical as possible. Despite the integration of rather many unconventional topics falling beyond the discipline boundaries, electrical engineering seniors find the course very exciting and challenging.

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