Integration of signals/systems and electromagnetics courses through the design of a communication system for a cardiac pacemaker

As students go through a traditional ECE program, they lean a great deal about individual components and tools: transistors, op amps, diodes, resistors, transmission lines, and Fourier transforms. In a traditional lab they build and test these individual units. But when the lab is done, whether or not it worked, they can more or less "forget it." And, when the class is finished, they stash their notes and move on to the next subject, often forgetting much of what they have learned. In spite of all of our lecturing, students often do not see the relevance of what they are supposedly leaning, do not see how it fits into a system, and do not see how they will ever use it. Their motivation suffers, their grades droop, and the bright, energetic, creative, and optimistic student becomes mired in a morass of disconnected abstraction. ..before transferring to another major.