Development Of An Undergraduate Course In Radar Systems

This paper outlines and presents the results of the development and teaching of a unique course in radar systems to undergraduate students in electrical engineering and avionics majors at Saint Louis University. It also discusses the challenge of offering such a course, and proposes a course curriculum that is specifically tailored for undergraduate students. The important and fascinating topics of radar enjoy an extensive audience in industry and government, but deserve more attention in undergraduate education to better prepare graduating engineers to meet the demands of modern mankind. Radar is not only one of the major applications of electronics and electromagnetic communications; but also a mature scientific discipline with significant theoretical foundations that may warrant an intellectual and educational challenge specifically to undergraduate students. The course is developed in an attempt to provide a broad concept underlying the basic principle of operations of most radar systems. It is tailored to maintain a good balance of mathematical rigor suitable enough to convince students without causing them to lose interest. Topics are presented not as abstruse and esoteric to the point of incomprehensibility. It is an attempt to distill the very complex and rich technology of radar into its fundamentals. Examples and exercises are chosen to reinforce the concepts presented, and to illustrate the radar applications. The course also includes some laboratory components to emphasize the principles and concepts of some radar systems. The challenge encountered in offering this course is a good text. Although there is a plethora of books on radar systems, all of them are written for the specialist or the advanced graduate students. Hand-outs are widely used to meet the course requirements.