The Telecommunications Engineering Technology (TCET) program at Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU) has experienced tremendous growth since its inception in 1999. The program has been one of the fastest growing programs within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) Department, and received its first ever full ABET accreditation in 2003, retroactive to 2000. The TCET students get hands-on experiences in telecommunications networks analysis and the various aspects related to the administration and management of such networks. A primary goal of the program from its inception has been to develop a capstone course in which students demonstrate their competence gained via the program by the successful completion of a team project and associated report. This paper discusses the development of the telecommunications project course as a capstone course for the TCET program at SPSU. The most recent project involved the setting up of a voice-over-IP (VoIP) network using Cisco routers and equipment available in our telecommunications laboratory. The VoIP network operated over a Frame Relay (FR) cloud and incorporated security aspects into the design. In the final design, the students demonstrated that the network could also be used for sending video over the network. Preliminary results based on student performance and feed-back from those students who have taken the course are presented; they indicate that the course has been successful in meeting the intended goals. Due to the successful outcome the ECET department has accepted this course to serve as the capstone course for the TCET program.
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