In the summer of 1998, the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and computer Science (the Jonsson School) at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) obtained approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to offer BS and MS degrees in Telecommunications Engineering (TE). These are the first TE degree programs in the United States and the BS program received ABET accreditation for classes to begin in the fall of 1999.
This paper discusses the need for such a program at UTD from the perspective of industry as well as the academic justification for a separate degree. The implementation of the program as a combination of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is addressed as well as the tradeoffs necessary in combining these curricula. Many of the issues are similar to the ones addressed in a Computer Engineering program. However, the resulting tradeoffs are different in the case of a Telecommunications Engineering program.