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IEEE EMC Society Education and Student Activities Committee |
Maqsood Mohd, Chairman I
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Since the EMC community was together in Montréal during August 2001, our lives have changed. We have witnessed the worst terrorist act in US history. However, this is not the first time that religion was abused, and if history is any witness, it may not be the last time either. Innocent people continue to be terrorized around the world in the name of religion. Misguided practitioners of Islam are not alone in these types of acts. Misguided adherents of world religions such as, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity all are equally tainted. One needs to just look in the daily news headlines around the globe. Islam, however, is a favorite target of the mass media. The mass media constantly manufactures a connection of terrorism to Islam; notwithstanding that true Islam has nothing to do with such acts. President Bush, scores of law enforcement and public officials in the US have emphasized this fact.
Proper education is the key to understand the human civilization and societal dynamics. During the last few weeks, I have been providing the much-needed education to my fellow Americans in and around my area. I must also express my utmost appreciation for the generous outpouring of concern and help from those whom I know and those whom I don’t know, in this heightened time of misguided hatred towards fellow Muslims and Arab Americans. I hope, like President Bush and other public officials in the US, the common people have a clear distinction between the true adherents of Islam and a fringe group.
As life goes on, what will help us understand and march forward with confidence is what we would do in our EMC profession. Our profession can provide the guidance very much needed today. That is, if there is a catastrophic failure due to EMI, then we look for its causes and resolve it in such a manner that the EMI will not occur again. In our terrorized world of today, we need to search for reason(s) why these types of events occur and take appropriate steps to inhibit them from occurring again. We might also study the history of the world to guide us, just like we would study the history of EMI in a system to get a better understanding of the nature of the problem. On behalf of the Education and Student Activities Committee (ESAC) I wish you peace and a normal life in the coming weeks, months, and years. Now let me provide you with the details of the ESAC activities for your reading pleasure and enjoyment.
Our big education events at the symposium included the Experiments Demonstration and the Fundamental Tutorial Workshop. Nine years ago, we started the Experiments Demonstration session, and the Fundamental Tutorial and NARTE Exam Preparation workshops eight years ago. On Mondays, eight years ago, there was hardly any other workshop offered. Over the years, the choice for the attendees has grown to almost eight workshops on Mondays. Thanks to our excellent speakers and presenters, our Tutorial sessions have never lost their appeal and utility. The real down to earth and fundamentals education is really in demand. One of the reasons for this demand is that the environment in which we live is becoming richer with man-made electromagnetic energy and at the same time the susceptibility of electronic technology is decreasing. So, many are in desperate need of how to deal with EMI and EMC today. The increasing participation of novices in this field at seminars and symposia and even the desire of seasoned professionals to brush-up and soak up every tidbit of EMC knowledge are noteworthy. After all, knowledge is power. This makes our Committee’s responsibility very important, and we don’t take that lightly. We of the ESAC will continue to strive to bring the best in EMC Education to you as we have in the past. But, we need fresh ideas and feedback on what we provide. If you are interested in making the education task easier, efficient, and innovative, and you enjoy doing this type of activity, please contact any one of us.
Knowledge is power. It’s worth repeating! And indeed education is the means to get the knowledge. To seek knowledge is a birth right of every human being. EMC professionals are included in this. It is never too late to learn and seek education. Education is a verb. Our goal is to become the premier education committee of the IEEE. This is your Committee. We are here to help you and support your education needs. We are striving to undertake unconventional and innovative means to achieve our goals. Help us help you better. Let me update you on the activities of our various subcommittees. We welcome your help and support that you may be able to provide to any of our subcommittees. Please feel free to contact any of these subcommittee Chairs.
The Montréal, Canada Symposium is now behind us; and it was the best yet for educating and enriching the EMC professionals. The Montréal Symposium Committee deserves thanks and appreciation for the job well done. At this symposium, the Education and Student Activities Committee achieved great success in several areas. In the following paragraphs I have highlighted some of the events that took place that you may find of interest.
It was another landmark year for the Fundamentals Tutorials. Although the tutorials are primarily targeted for the entry-level engineers in the EMC field, quite a few seasoned engineers also enjoy brushing-up on concepts that they might not have used in a while. This year several noted experts from several organizations provided the tutorial material to help better understand EMC concepts and to better design systems from EMC point of view. The highlight of the Tutorials was that not only theoretical concepts from PC board design to system engineering were discussed, but also practical examples of how to analyze communication systems of wireless technology were presented. A notable addition to this Tutorial was the presentation about the passive intermodulation (PIM) concepts useful in space-borne systems. If attendance is any measure of success and popularity, the Fundamental Tutorials were very successful. Throughout the day on an average there was an impressive attendance of about 400 participants. We had standing room only during parts of the day. We needed extra chairs a few times in the day. With the help of understanding from our audience, we had successful sessions. Like previous years, this year too, the first-time attendees were relatively larger in percentage than the seasoned ones. Maybe the seasoned ones didn’t want to sit in standing room only sessions. But the newcomers didn’t know any better. With everybody’s understanding and patience we managed to cater to the audience. Thanks to all the speakers and the attendees who made the Fundamentals Tutorials a great success. The tutorial subcommittee is busy planning for another exciting and informative session during the Minneapolis 2002 Symposium. If you would like to propose a topic or a speaker for the Minneapolis Symposium, email your comments and ideas to maqsood@ieee.org.
This is another popular and “educational” activity we do as a committee. A variety of EMC concepts are demonstrated experimentally during the symposium to educate the symposium attendees. This year also marked the beginning of demonstration of EM modeling and simulation (M&S) concepts. For three main days of the symposium more than 20 experts demonstrated 24 EMC concepts that sometimes might be classified as abstract or black magic. Many happy souls were pleased to learn these concepts during these demonstrations. Their doubts changed into convincing beliefs. The same numbers of demonstrations were also presented in the M&S area. There were at least two noteworthy highlights during this year. We had presenters from around the world and also demonstrations were located in the best location at the symposium. Our thanks go to the Montréal Symposium committee for providing us with the excellent location for the demonstrations. Thanks are due to Andy Drozd and Larry Cohen for putting together a fine demonstration program. Our thanks are also due to very supportive vendors. If you would like to demonstrate an experiment at the Minneapolis symposium, respond to the Call for Experiments or contact Andy Drozd. If you would like to demonstrate an EMC modeling and simulation concept at the next symposium in Minneapolis please contact Andy at andro1@aol.com. (Please see Andy’s article on the Experiments Demonstrations on page 34 of this Newsletter for more information.)
As during the past several years, Dr. James Whalen conducted the workshop for engineers and technicians who are preparing to take the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers (NARTE) examination to certify as EMC engineers and technicians. Dr. James Whalen is also a part of the overseeing committee of the EMCS that would review the question pool along with several folks from the technical committees (TCs). At the NARTE examination on Friday during the symposium, 13 engineers and technicians sat for the exams. The word from NARTE is that 62% of the participants passed the exams. Our congratulations to all the successful applicants, and welcome to the ranks of certified NARTE professionals. Our thanks to Dr. James Whalen for championing the cause of “preparing for the NARTE exams.”
John Howard heads the university grant committee. This year we had responses from around the world requesting the grant money and the committee was successful in selecting a winner. The grant is provided to an institution that is on the verge of offering an EMC course. The grant money is used as seed money to start an EMC course as an established part of the curriculum in an Electrical Engineering department. The grant is open to all universities in the world. For more details contact John Howard at jhoward@emcguru.com. This year’s winning school is the Utah State University. Congratulations to Dr. Randy Jost of USU.
Professor Antonio Orlandi is the Chair of this subcommittee. The mission of the university survey committee is to survey the universities and collect data about the EMC course offering, student population, modeling and simulation usage, etc. The data collected will help EMCS and its members in various ways. Information will be useful for prospective students, industry, employers etc. If you have not already done so, please, complete an online survey by going to the website https://dau.ing.univaq.it/art. If you know of a school or a college that has not participated in the survey, please encourage them to complete an online survey. For more information on this activity, please contact Professor Orlandi at orlandi@ing.univaq.it.
This is the most exciting area of growth this year for our Committee. This effort epitomizes the proverbial synergistic cooperative effort between industry and the Society. Ahmad Fallah of Ciena CSD in Cupertino, California, is the Chair of this effort. This was our second year and we have learnt a few more things this year. We will still learn and fine-tune the process as we go. If you would like to join this bandwagon and help advance and fine tune this contest, then contact Ahmad Fallah. In this competition, parts of a circuit (designed by Fallah) in the form of a kit are sent to the students at the universities. The kit is yours for the asking. This year more than 30 kits were sent to seven countries in addition to the US. We received only three entries. The entries were evaluated against a set of criteria provided in the information packet sent with the kit. The evaluators are EMC engineers from the industry and academia without any conflict of interest. In spite of our creative evaluation, this year two teams “tied” for the first place. This is very unusual. The 2001 EMC Student Design Competition was a major success! The two winning entries were teams from California State University at Chico and Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton. Each team’s primary member presented an impressive poster paper presentation in the demonstration area. Each team qualified to receive $900 in cash and one student from each winning team received an expense-paid trip to attend the 2001 IEEE International Symposium on EMC in Montréal, Canada. The most important reward for the participants, however, was the experience of applying their EMC design knowledge to a real-life problem and explaining the EMI-reduction techniques to scores of professionals at the symposium. If you are a student and want to participate in the 2002 EMC Design Contest, then all you need to do is contact Ahmad M. Fallah at (408) 342-5516, or (408)-366-4866 (fax), or via email at ahmadfallah@ieee.org, and request a design kit and a copy of the competition rules by December 31, 2001. Follow the rules and submit a winning entry. Get started early and remember: the early bird gets the worm. The price is right. The winner gets a free trip to the Minneapolis EMC symposium in 2002 and $900 US dollars! Not bad! Please see the article by Ahmad Fallah on page 23 of this Newsletter for more information on this contest.
Dr. Jim Drewniak is heading up this effort. Dr. Dick DuBroff is helping Jim in expanding this activity to additional manuals. The first Experiment Manual published by the Education and Student Activities Committee is on the web site at: https://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pdf/EMCman.pdf. If you have an Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download the entire manual from this site. If you don’t have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, it can easily be downloaded from the site: https://www.adobe.com. Jim and Dick can still use some help from a volunteer who can do the follow-up work of soliciting and arranging the new experiments. If you are interested in broadening your career horizons, contact Jim or Dick or any other officer of the Education and Student Activities Committee.
Andy Drozd was the Chair-person of this subcommittee. He has done a wonderful job of creating the website for your ESAC. As the duties fall under the secretary of the Committee, Dr. Bob Nelson has taken over and is very ably maintaining it. Take a look at our web site at https://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/emcsedu.html. If you have any ideas how to improve our web site, please contact Andy, Bob, or me.
Ahmad Fallah is the new Chair of this subcommittee. The mission of this committee is to reach out and touch some students (in fact, all students). Primarily, the focus is on working with student chapters in four areas: The Awareness of EMC, Student Paper Contest, The President’s Award, and the Student Design Contest. The first order of business is to introduce the student chapters to EMC educational materials. If you have any ideas or wish to volunteer please contact Ahmad Fallah (ahmadfallah@ieee.org) or me (maqsood@ieee.org).
In addition to the Best Student Design Award, each year the Education and Student Activities Committee also awards the Best Student Paper Award at the annual symposium. The winning entries for this year are as follows:
Best Student Paper Contest: “On the Enhancement of Radiated Electric and Magnetic Fields Associated with Lightning Return Strokes to Tall Structures,” by J.L. Bermudez, et. al, of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland. His award included $900 US dollars and an expense paid trip to the Montréal Symposium.
Best Student Design Contest: The winning entries were from California State University at Chico and Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton. The team members from CSU, Chico were: Richard Chairez, Cynthia Abundabar, and Gaurav Khalsa, and the solo team member from FAU, Boca Raton was Christos Kinezos. The three members of the CSU Chico team shared a cash award of $900 US dollars. The primary team member, Richard Chairez, got an expense paid trip to the symposium in addition to the cash award. The FAU team had only one member and Christos Kinezos was awarded the $900 US dollars cash award and the expense paid trip to attend the symposium in Montréal. Congratulations to these students, their team members, their professors, sponsors, and universities.
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EMCS President Joe Butler (left) is pleased to present the award for the Best Student Paper presented at the 2001 IEEE International Symposium on EMC to Jose Luis Bermudez (center) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Power Systems Laboratory, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Maqsood Mohd (right), Chair of the Education and Student Activities Committee, congratulates this star student! |
Best Student Design Award Winner Presentation at the 2001 Symposium. Vichate Ungvichian (left), professor, and Christos Kinezos, Student, of Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida. |
The task of this committee is to produce educational material in appropriate and useful medium to the EMCS membership. Dick Ford is the Chair of this committee. He will welcome any help you can provide him in this task. What we do in this committee will have a far-reaching impact in the 21st century. At the present time we are in process of producing some video products of experiments that will be valuable to EMC students and professionals alike.
The task of this committee is to produce educational material in appropriate and useful medium to the EMCS membership. The outreach consists of the segments: The k-12 population, the college student population, and the professional members who are not fulltime students. We are beginning to devote our efforts and resources to the k-12 population segment during the coming months. If you have any ideas how to go about doing this job more effectively, please contact me at maqsood@ieee.org.
Some changes have occurred during the symposium. Contact any one of the following to become a part of the ongoing innovation in EMC engineering through education.
Student Activities
Ahmad Fallah, ahmadfallah@ieee.org
NARTE BOD Liaison
David Case, davecase@cisco.com
Experiments Manual II
Jim Drewniak,
drewniak@ece.umr.edu
Vice Chair
Andy Drozd, andro1@aol.com
Demonstrations
Andy Drozd & Larry Cohen,
cohen@radar.nrl.navy.mil
Student Design Contest
Ahmad Fallah, ahmadfallah@ieee.org
Video Productions
Dick Ford, dford@radar.nrl.navy.mil
University Grant
John Howard, jhoward@emcguru.com
Tutorials
Maqsood Mohd, maqsood@ieee.org
University Survey
Antonio Orlandi,
orlandi@electtrica.ing.uniroma1.it
NARTE
Jim Whalen & David Case,
jjw4@ece.umr.edu
EMC Outreach
Maqsood Mohd, maqsood@ieee.org
I would like to express my personal thanks and appreciation to each of these officers who tirelessly work throughout the year to bring the very best in EMC education materials, workshops, demonstrations, tutorials, and student contests at every symposium and to all the members of the EMC profession throughout the year. When you email them, contact them, or see them during a symposium, please express your appreciation for their volunteering valuable time for the EMCS and the Education and Student Activities Committee. EMC
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