A. Herrera*, and J. Reyes**,
Departamento de Telecomunicaciones, Facultad de Ingeniería,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
* e-mail: aherrera@speech.depfi.unam.mx, fax: (525)616-1073, ** fax (525)
616-1855
The Engineering School of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) has the heritage of the first Engineering School in the America Continent, The Real Seminar of Mines (Real Seminario de Minas) created at 1792 [1]. The UNAM has had an enormous role in the modernization of the country. In 1994, the Engineering School had 9798 students, approximately 5%of the national number of students. However, about 40%of the engineering research of the country is made at UNAM.
In Mexico, four engineering schools offer graduate programs in the area of communications, including the UNAM. There are many engineering schools at the technical level. At the undergraduate level, there were until 1992 twelve engineering schools offering communication formation in areas of speciality at bachelor programs of different names.
However, many private and public companies have shown insufficient of human resources in this area. The development of telecommunications is growing exponentially. For example, in 1988 there was 6.4 telephonic lines by 100 habitants, by the year 2000 we must have 19 lines by 100 habitants to meet the demand, including the service for more than 20,000 towns of less than 500 habitants. The use of ISDN, optical fibers, satellite communications began in the 90's in Mexico, and have an explosive demand [2]. With these and other premises the Telecommunications Engineering undergraduate program was created at 1992 with the support of government agencies and private companies at Mexico.
Telecommunication systems are an integral part of the world economy. New and powerful technologies have been recently developed to process, manage, transmit, store and retrieve information. Information has become a desired economical commodity attained most efficiently through a state of the art telecommunications infrastructure. Today the future economical growth of a country depends more and more upon how well it is integrated with global information networks. However, the systems available in developing countries, like those of Latin America, are insufficient to satisfy demand or to interface adequately with international networks. This in turn adversely affects the area's potential for economical growth and ability to compete in international trades.
Mexico has recognized that an improved communications infrastructure and systems will increase the ability to attract foreign investment, compete in world markets and foster economical growth. Attaining these goals is becoming a high priority today, as the country is emerging from a period of predominantly state-controlled economy toward a new, more outward oriented economy. There is growing recognition of the key role that the private sector can play in providing much needed technical and financial resources. Privatization and liberalization processes are gaining a great deal of attention. This trend is especially evident in the field of telecommunications. Until now the largest single privatization in Mexico has been in the field of Telecommunications. There is great interest in the Mexican government to modernize the communication infrastructure and systems in order to improve service, attract foreign investment, and to be able to effectively compete in world markets. Also the signing of NAFTA has made Mexico to seek during the process of modernization a greater compatibility between the telecommunications networks of this country with those of the United States and Canada.
In this process of participation of world markets, privatization of part of the telecommunications sector and the modernization of the communication infrastructure is the context in which the School of Engineering of UNAM planned the creation of an undergraduate curriculum for a Telecommunication Engineer. Until 1992, Telecommunication were only, in Mexico, an area of other bachelor programs like electronics and computing. An increasing number of government and private companies have had to prepare engineers on basic communications topics, so themselves asked for a more speciality formation in the area. This was done by graduate programs or courses, however, the number was increasing so UNAM decided to open this bachelor program.
Last year a revision of the curricula was done. The reason was to fulfill the requirements by the Mexican Accreditation Board of Engineering. In consequence, the basic, and social and humanities' sciences are stronger now.
The program has a duration of 10 semesters for a full time student, six semesters taking five courses and four of six courses, for a total of 54 courses. The total number of class-hours is 3192, for an average of 59.11 class-hours by a semester course. After 10 semesters, the student writes a final report (thesis), concerning an engineering research or an application problem, and presents an oral exam to obtain the degree.
We enhanced the basic science to match international standards. Now 42.76 %of the courses are from mathematics, physics, social and humanities' areas, 57.24 %are from the technical area -engineering science and applied engineering. The basic sciences courses increased from 13 to 19 and social and humanities from three to six courses. However, the applied engineering course has decreased, keeping only essential topics and deleting others that we consider more convenient for graduate level.
In Mexico the students go after 12 basic grade courses, or after the high school level, directly to the universities, where they study the basic sciences courses, these are equivalent to a USA university Lower Divisions. At the first four semesters, the students take five courses each semester most of them from basic sciences, with the following structure.
Semester 1: Algebra, Calculus I, Analytic Geometry, Experimental Physics, Written and Oral Expression.
Semester 2: Linear Algebra, Calculus II, Static, Chemistry, Computer Programming.
Semester 3: Differential Equations, Calculus III, Cinematic, Thermodynamics, Graphic Analysis.
Semester 4: Numerical Methods, Electricity and Magnetism, Dynamics, Probability, Advanced Mathematics.
The six courses of physics are accompanied with laboratories. In the computer course, the students learn the languages Pascal and ``C.'' A new course for this field has been included: Advanced Mathematics where two topics are covered: Complex variables and Fourier transform.
From the fifth to eight semester, the students take courses mainly from the engineering science. In this area, the courses involve the basic knowledge of the field, and construct the engineering theories using the basic sciences. The courses are:
Semester 5: Optics, Data Structures, Statistics, Signal and System Analysis, Philosophy of the Science and Technology.
Semester 6: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves, Stochastic Signal Analysis, Programming Engineering, Electric Circuits Analysis, Dynamic of Systems; History, Literature and Society.
Semester 7: Transmission Lines, Analog Communications, Digital Design, Electronic Devices and Circuits, Analog Control, Economics.
The School has created new course about Stochastic Signals for undergraduate level. The course includes classical topics of the area [4,5], with MATLAB practices. This tool is used also at other processing signals oriented courses.
During the last three semesters, most of the courses are from applied engineering. This group of courses gives the basic of planning, design, building, operation and maintenance of projects and communication systems.
Semester 8: Antennas and Propagation, Digital Communications, Design with Microprocessors, Electronic Amplifiers, Digital Signal Processing, Ethics.
Semester 9: Radiocommunication Systems, Telephony, Information Networks, Analog Integrated Circuits, Filters for Analog and Digital Signals, Thesis.
Semester 10: Microwaves and Satellites, Resources and Necessities of Mexico, Optical Communications, Electronic for Communication, Free Elective 1, Free Elective 2.
The two free elective courses are taken from one of the following speciality modules: Digital Signal Processing, Radiocommunications, Communication Links, Services and Systems, or Microwaves and Optical Systems. The Department includes laboratories for almost all the courses.
Three relevant aspects are now described:
The Telecommunications Department has 19 professors, eleven are part time and eight are full time professors. The number of students for three generations is 32. They were selected from almost 400 applications.
We presented a new Telecommunications program for the undergraduate level, at Mexico, with the experience of many years of other similar programs at our School. The program strength of foundation courses and basic engineering will allow the graduate students to understand rapidly new technologies.
We are convinced that this program will have few graduate students to fulfill the necessities in our country; however, the role of UNAM is to be a reference to begin new programs at other universities in Mexico. The program will be reviewed constantly with representatives of private companies and government agencies, joined at a Board, to adjust and improve it.