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The Master of Science in Telecommunications
(MST) Program
University
of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
MST
Program specialization
Telecommunications Networks, Systems, and Services.
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MST
Program objective
To pursue understanding of the issues related to the
design, implementation, and management of telecommunications
systems, preparing the student for a position as network
manager, network designer, network analyst, or data/voice
specialist.
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MST
Program instruction form
Compulsory class participation, labs, term projects,
paper turn-ins, programming, homeworks, practicums,
independent studies, tests, mid-term and final exams.
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MST
Program course list
My curriculum from the MST Program (as composed by my
advisor at the faculty and me) from the Department of
Information Science and Telecommunications, University
of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. The full list
of my courses are shown here, and I completed all well
and on schedule: |
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Foundations Area
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Telecommunication
Networks Overview - Basic technical and application
issues in telecommunications systems: voice, video,
and data transmission media in terms of technical capabilities
and organizational functionality. Standards (e.g. OSI),
theoretic representation and measures, network components,
fundamentals of data communication, and network analysis. |
Microcomputer
Fundamentals and Applications - Analysis and
design of distributed processing information systems
and workstations, with emphasis on the design of microcomputer
systems and software. Application development in C. |
Systems
and Technology
Area |
Protocols
and Interfacing - Overview of interfaces that
interconnect hardware and software components in a telecommunications
environment necessary for the orderly operation of a
network. Analysis and demonstration of each of the interface
standards and protocols relative to the OSI reference
model. |
Network
Concepts - Methods for analyzing applications
and networks for design or redesign. Evaluation methods:
queueing, routing, security, reliability, availability,
flexibility, privacy, concentration, multiplexing, recovery,
journaling, and statistics. |
Network
Performance - Techniques for analyzing the
performance of networks and systems. The techniques
to be covered include queueing theory and simulation
(using C and CSim). The applications and limitations
of each technique is studied. |
Coding
and Information Theory - Includes measures
of information, information sources, joint and conditional
uncertainty, deterministic channels, channel capacities,
properties of codes, compression, and error-detecting
and error-correcting codes. |
Electrical
Engineering Fundamentals - Presents the fundamental
phenomena, components, and concepts related to electricity
and electronics, in theory and laboratory. Required
for Communication Devices, as well as other courses
in the curriculum. |
Communications
Devices - Demonstrates how communication devices
(modu-lators, parity checkers, etc.) can be built from
elementary circuits and how these devices can be used
in a telecommunications network. |
Service
and Application Design - Special Topic: some
current telecommuni-cation services and applications,
user interfaces, and their usability. Upon this, new
applications are constructed, and own alternative designs
evaluated. |
Telecommunications
Applications - Typical network applications,
with emphasis on office automation, electronic mail
and messaging, inventory control, financial and reservation
systems, and current federal reports on trends and regulations. |
Interactive
Systems - The environments for interactive
use of computers, including necessary hardware, software,
and behavioral components of an interactive system,
emphasis on human/machine dialogues, and HCI and GOMS
models. |
Database
Analysis and Design - Factors required to design,
evaluate, and manage database systems. Quantitative
methods for design and evaluation. Design problems solved
by using available DBMS (i.e.SQL). |
Cognitive Science
Area |
Foundations
of Cognitive Science - The development of scientific
knowledge about thinking. An examination of early attempts
to study thinking scientifically, what is considered
the best model of thinking, and comparisons for thinking
and cognition. |
| Telecom's Management
Area |
International
Telecommunications - Issues in international
telecommunications; survey of key organizations, e.g.
ITU, CCITT, GATT, Intelsat; telecommunications and economic
development; international trade in services; competition,
and regulation; standards; and trans-border data flow
issues. |
| Independent Study |
Telecom
Application Development - Pioneering project in 1993, "Two-Way Real-Time
Voice (and Offline Messaging) Teleconferencing System
over LAN", running on the Microsoft Windows platform,
and developed in Microsoft Visual C, using early available
beta audio streaming and WfWg networking protocol C libraries. |
| Practicum |
Database
Systems Development - Development of a congress
administration system for commercial use, running on
Personal Computers, using the DataEase database environment
and DQL (SQL) programming language as development tools.
300 work hours. |
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