Communications and Space Systems Engineering.

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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 todays
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.