A New Digital Communications Course Enhanced by PC-Based Design Projects

Typical undergraduate study programs in digital communication systems (DCS) include a wide range of lecture topics that cover all stages of the system from information source to information sink. However, common practical programs in DCS are aimed more towards helping students to understand theoretical material, rather than providing them with the necessary design experience. In this paper we describe a new approach for giving students hands-on experience in the design of specific parts of a communication system through PC-based projects. The implementation of such a scheme in the existing curriculum is shown to be readily feasible, and its benefits to engineering education are also demonstrated.