The EMC Society’s Education and Student Activities Committee (ESAC) has a long record of creating and fostering programs that develop EMC skills in those entering the profession. Over the many years of its existence, EMC education has been unceasingly promoted at both the academic and professional levels. Following is a review of just a few of the many activities created and fostered by the ESAC.

University Grant Program
One of the major thrusts of our efforts has been directed at facilitating the establishment of EMC courses at the University level. A set of EMC experiments has been collected and published to assist professors in developing courses where the theory can be reinforced by practice. Our annual meeting, held every year at the IEEE EMC symposium, is attended by EMC educators and others from around the world interested in promoting the field. The interchange and discussion of common issues benefits the development of EMC education as a whole.
     Each year the EMC Society makes available funds to establish on-going courses at the university level covering the principles of EMC. The EMC Society University Grant Committee comprises members from both academia and industry. It issues a call for proposals every August, reviews the submissions, and provides the awards by the end of the year. Since the awarding of the first grant in 1997, recurring courses have been established at 13 schools on three continents. Over 1,000 students have now completed a full-semester course in EMC design that was facilitated by an EMC Society University Grant. In a survey of past awardees made in early 2007 to assess the ten-year effectiveness of the program, two of the side benefits of the program reported by several respondents were a better appreciation from academic administrators of the field EMC as a viable area for teaching and research, and a strengthening of ties between the school and industry which needs engineers trained in the concepts of EMC. Two awards were given in 2008: $10,000 for the Wuhan University of Science and Technology in China to fund the proposal written by Professor Xiaoying Xu, and $5,000 went to the University of Split in Croatia for a course being developed by Professor Antonio Sarolic. Professors interested in applying for future University Grants are invited to contact the grant committee chairman at jerset@citadel.edu.

Student Paper and
Design Competitions
Two of the activities sponsored by ESAC to encourage student interest in EMC are a student paper competition, the fruits of which are seen at the Symposium, and a hardware design competition. In the latter contest, student teams build and test circuits with the minimization of emissions as a key design parameter. The hardware prototypes are then submitted to an ESAC subcommittee who measure the emissions. The winners are awarded travel assistance to attend the Symposium where they demonstrate their work.

Fundamentals of EMC Annual Workshop
To aid engineering professionals entering the EMC field, the ESAC sponsors a workshop on the “Fundamentals of EMC” at the annual IEEE EMC symposium. The workshop for this year’s symposium in Austin was organized by Professor Daryl Beetner of the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Five noted speakers will present tutorials on electromagnetics, the application of its principles to coupling models, return current flow, PCB design techniques, and the numerical modeling of EMI mechanisms. For complete information on this workshop, visit www.emc2009.org.

Join the ESAC!
ESAC invites anyone with an interest in EMC education to join us at our annual meeting on Tuesday morning, August 18 at the 2009 IEEE International Symposium on EMC in Austin, Texas. The future of our Society and profession depends upon persistently developing EMC skills in young and other engineers who are new to the field.     EMC

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