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Communications and Space Systems Engineering. Ethics of Development Dr. Bruce Lusignan Website http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~lusignan/.
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Communications and Space Systems Engineering. Ethics of Development Dr. Bruce Lusignan Website http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~lusignan/ Professor Lusignan began at Stanford in 1963 and will retire this December to come full time to PSU. He pioneered Communications Satellites for development and Lunar and Mars exploration systems in his interdisciplinary courses. For twenty years he has directed the policy course, Ethics of Development in a Global Environment (EDGE), combining economics, politics, and technology to find solutions to today’s international crises. He hopes his many graduates throughout the world and the PSU faculty and students from all departments can shed light on better directions for the U.S. Dr. Lusignan visiting a rural satellite station in the Peruvian Andes Ethics of Development in a Global Environment (EDGE) Studies by Portland State and Stanford University involve students from all disciplines. The troubles of the world are seen through the eyes of other countries and cultures. Alternatives to post-colonial schemes to rule the world are sought through international organizations, the U.N. and World Courts, economic blocs, the EU, Arab Union, Community of Nations, African Union, Arab League, and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and through ecumenical religious groups. Three quarters of EDGE, War and Peace in the Autumn, Trade and Environment in the Winter and Prejudice and Poverty in the Spring involve students in in-depth papers to identify and promote solutions. The papers posted on the website build knowledge towards these alternative visions. Communications Systems Engineering The communications course grew out of the Stanford Communications Satellite Planning Center, which pioneered development of modern communications satellites TVRO and VSATS, low cost telephone switches for rural areas, cellular radio, and internet applications. At the start of the projects the cost of rural telephone links was $250,000, then $32,000, then $1,500, then $500 and today with fairly priced WiMAX, about $150. The Communications course teaches the normal technical theories of link equations, modulation efficiencies, antenna performance. It adds economics of telecom ventures. In addition each student develops a study for a rural area in a country of his or her choice, focusing on the possibility of starting a rural enterprise to interconnect the local community to the internet to supplement education and health and to link local producers to world markets. Space Systems Engineering For 30 years Dr. Lusignan has also taught Space Systems Engineering, publishing interdisciplinary reports on weather satellites, communications satellites and Mars exploration systems. After the Cold War he led the Stanford-Russian Mars study, with four Russian engineers joining the student team to define a joint program for human exploration of Mars. He and Kristine E. Nelson, PhD, Dean and Professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at Portland State University are on the board of Stanford on the Moon, an alumni project to encourage international cooperation to go the Moon and then Mars. WiMAX installation Plan for rural Ghana Dr. Lusignan has graduated over 47 PhD students in the above areas. He greatly enjoys directing student research and welcomes students working for Masters and PhD theses at PSU. He hopes that this research can lead to a better world made safer and more productive by technology.