Objective
The Certificate Program in Wireless and Mobile Networks will provide a mechanism for practicing engineers to acquire up to date knowledge in rapidly growing wireless and mobile communications. It is expected that there would be a growing interest in this area during next decade and this program will enable to attract more part-time students who otherwise would be reluctant to make a commitment for a regular MS degree. The program will bring some additional visibility to the university, by leveraging on existing internal strengths in the ECE Department. The courses are a subset of graduate curriculum in the ECE Department and are composed to provide the necessary background in the area of wireless networks. Because of such program composition, it would be easy for enrolled students to continue toward MS degree should they wish so. The program is carefully tailored to provide students with necessary knowledge in all aspects of mobile and wireless networks: modulation techniques, antennas and propagation, mobile communications systems and mobile networks. Students will learn fundamental principles of wireless communications including advanced modulation and detection schemes, multipath fading, diversity, propagation models and antenna characteristics in system design. The courses will introduce advanced communications techniques (e.g. multiuser detection, smart antennas and space-time coding) that will be crucial for achieving high capacity for next generation systems. They will be exposed to system and protocol aspects of advanced wireless networks and systems, such as GSM, GPRS, CDMA (cdmaOne, cdma2000 and WCDMA), wireless ATM, wireless LAN, Bluetooth and mobile Internet. This will provide a necessary background for design and planning of 3G and 4G terrestrial and satellite wireless information networks.

Prerequisites
Applicants admitted to the ECE Graduate Certificate Program are required to have a Bachelor's Degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or computer science with a grade-point average of at least 3.0 (on a scale of 4) or equivalent, for the last 60 credit hours of undergraduate work. Applicants with degrees in other disciplines and a basic knowledge of mathematics and physical sciences may be admitted with a set of deficiency courses to be determined by a faculty member assigned by the department as the applicant's advisor.

Admission
The Graduate Certificate Program will admit applicants on an open enrollment basis. Applicants will be subjected to the same admissions process as applicants to the Master's Degree except that they will indicate their choice of Certificate Program.

Curriculum
The curriculum consists of six courses, ECE 203, 243, 253, 257, 258 & 259 each carrying three academic credit hours. Descriptions of these courses are attached:

ECE 203 Stochastic Processes in Engineering
ECE 243 Communication Theory I
ECE 253 Mobile and Wireless Communication Systems
ECE 257 Multiuser Communications
ECE 258 Propagation and Antennas in Wireless Communications
ECE 259 Wireless Networks

Schedule
Two of the certificate courses will be offered each semester beginning in August 2000. Students can complete the 18-credit hour program and earn the Graduate Certificate in two academic years. These six certificate courses will also be offered as part of an accelerated cohort program at the Virginia campus beginning in August 2004.Students can complete the 18 credit hours program and earn the graduate certificate in 20 months.

Certificate Requirements
Students will be awarded the Graduate Certificate in Wireless and Mobile Networks after completion of all six of the courses in the program with at least an average grade of B and not more than 2 courses with a grade of C.

Continuation to the MS program
The eighteen credit hours earned in the successful completion of the Graduate Certificate Program are fully transferable to the MS program of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Advisor
The ECE department faculty advisor responsible for the Graduate Certificate Program is Professor Vojcic