Life Imitates Art?
Mike, a friend of mine recently asked me about electromagnetic
interference and the nature of the work we do. He seemed very
intrigued by the subject and at the same time was a bit puzzled.
I proceeded to give him the somewhat traditional layman’s
view of EMI/C by illustrating the potential effects of radiated
emissions/susceptibility on electronic assemblies and integrated
systems. Although Mike is a savvy individual, he is a professional
artist by trade. Nonetheless, he had a good grasp on the basic
concepts I presented. He tends to have a pragmatic perspective
on things. His view of EMI, in his words, was “…a
breakdown between communications devices like radios and cell
phones…” including “…the effect of energy
exposure on people.” Indeed, his interpretation was a valid
one at that, but this exchange got me thinking more about how
important it is to reach out and educate others in the various
aspects of EMC technology, including its impacts on humanity and
connection to other scientific disciplines in today’s modern
age of wireless communications, information systems, and sensor
technologies, to name a few. This brings me to two themes I would
like to pursue in this message: electromagnetic diversity as a
new age technological challenge and the importance of EMC engineering
education.
Let’s go back to my artist friend Mike for a moment. I commissioned
Mike to do a painting for my office meant to depict, in an abstract
way, the concept of electromagnetic diversity. In the general
sense, diversity as in diverse viewpoints, opinions, or ideas
can be a good thing. In the realm of electromagnetics, diversity
can present a major challenge. Electromagnetic diversity encompasses
and embellishes the notion of a highly dynamic, diverse and electromagnetically-rich
environment along with the myriad electromagnetic effects that
can arise all leading to fundamental EMI/C and safety/hazard issues
that we address in our day to day work. The diversity comes from
the various ways energy can be produced, propagated, coupled,
received and processed at victim devices. No matter how you look
at it, electromagnetic signals and their effects can be viewed
in various orthogonal domains or RF resource spaces, including,
but not limited to frequency, time, modulation/code, geo-space,
polarization, power, as well as other possible dimensions. In
fact, the RF communications and radar waveform diversity communities
have embraced this view and investigated methods for exploiting
the multi-dimensional nature of the RF signal space to enhance
communications throughput and for improving object tracking/discrimination.
For instance, such enhancements can be realized by properly controlling
time, frequency, and waveform parameters of an electromagnetic
signal in an adaptive way as environmental conditions or states
change dynamically. This is electromagnetic diversity. What the
communications and radar communities have run up against is the
electromagnetic environment issue which introduces a whole new
set of system of systems EMI problems that were unexpected and
must be dealt with. The goal of achieving non-interference limited
communications and sensor surveillance has taken a front seat
in much of the R&D work we have today. This is where our community
steps in. However, I don’t want to get bogged down in the
nature of the technical problem and its solution here. Instead,
let’s again return to my artist friend Mike and the painting
I commissioned.
When I posed the theme of the painting to Mike, I asked him to
commit to canvas his personal view of electromagnetic diversity
and the battle of EMC (good) versus EMI (evil). The result is
shown on the following page. The original idea for commissioning
this work was to replace some of the stock pictures of airplanes,
printed circuit boards, and spectrum allocation charts currently
occupying the walls of my office at work. I wanted to replace
these with photos or artwork that would evoke some passion about
the topic by graphically conveying the notion of EMI versus EMC.
This harkens back to circa 1983 as I recalled a cleverly designed
cover of the premier edition of EMC Technology and Interference
News magazine published by Don White Consultants. The cover picture
of that issue put a face on EMI, sort of, by personifying EMI
as a menacing, axe-wielding, medieval hooded character (aka “EMI”)
threatening to attack a piece of electronics gear. I thought that
was a classic depiction. I wanted to duplicate the novelty of
that depiction, but approach it from a layman’s viewpoint
and in more of an abstract way.
The painting shows the ‘seething’ EMI force (dark
tendrils) trying to choke the EMC force (white tendrils) from
within an electromagnetically-rich environment, which itself is
living, breathing and highly diverse and complex. It conveys a
yin-yang (good vs. evil) quality where EMI and EMC battle each
other as if they were actual living forces. The tendrils are like
electromagnetic waves traveling through time and space giving
the impression of energy forces that are changing to counteract
each other perhaps to achieve some sort of balance at the very
least. So, what do you think?
What does this all mean? Simply, this depiction is a type of harbinger
of the challenges ahead to the EMC community. It reminds us that
as forefront technologies arise, evolve and mature, we must be
vigilant of the EMI/C issues that may need to be addressed.
I am a firm believer that diversity in terms of new technologies,
innovations and novel applications is a good thing. However, there
is a potential risk side to all this if we don’t consider
the big picture including the cross-discipline synergies involved
in designing, developing and fielding new devices, products and
systems in the future. EMC is only one piece of the puzzle, but
perhaps one of the key pieces that properly completes the picture.
 |
Electromagnetic Diversity and the Battle
of EMI and EMC
(Artwork courtesy of Mike Watson, Photo courtesy of Andrew
C. Blackburn) |
This edition of the Newsletter includes a practical paper that
addresses topics in EMC, magnetic and RF sensor technologies for
small- as well as large-scale applications, and human safety.
The paper identifies critical EMI and potential electronics and
personnel hazards issues for state-of-the-art technologies in
the context of real-world problems. This represents a prime example
of how we are working to constantly keep pace with new technology
trends and issues.
Indeed, I am pleased by the progress that has been made by the
EMC Society’s Technical Committees (TCs) and Standards Development
Committee (SDCom) to embrace new technology issues. In particular,
these committees have begun to actively engage in study projects
on topics related to electromagnetic terrorism (i.e., the exploitation
of electromagnetic signals to disrupt systems, to illegally sniff
or extract data from information systems, and so on), power line
communications, new paradigms in spectrum management and the emergence
of policy defined radios, to name a few. Most notably, at the
time of this writing, the EMC Society Board of Directors approved
the creation of TC-11 on Nanotechnology and EMC, at the recommendation
of Vice President of Technical Services, John Norgard, and Technical
Advisory Committee (TAC) Chair, Bob Scully. This is a prelude
to the formation of yet additional TCs and standards study projects
over the next couple of years that will focus on other new and
burgeoning technologies outside of the traditional EMC realm.
This is what I had hoped for and sets the path for the future
under President-elect Elya Joffe’s leadership and beyond.
Now, this brings me to the next theme: EMI/C education.
Educating the Masses
For the past several years, the Board of Directors of the EMC
Society and its various technical, standards, and education committees
have made a concerted effort to more clearly establish a viable
path for fostering education in EMC from grade school to the work
force level. For instance, we are revamping strategies towards
achieving a more tightly knit and coordinated effort between the
EMC Society’s Standards Education and Training Committee
(SETCom) and our Education and Student Activities Committee (ESAC).
This is being done to define the EMC educational product map and
to define services that we might provide to schools and private
industry in the future. Vice President of Standards Don Heirman
as well as John Norgard will lead this activity in cooperation
with SETCom and ESAC Chairs Qiubo Ye and Bob Nelson, respectively.
Bob Nelson is also working on redefining near- and long-term strategies
for the ESAC. This is expected to revitalize and fine-tune existing
education programs for students in grade school up through the
university level, as well as institute new initiatives in EMC
education to keep our perspectives fresh and on target with the
needs of today’s engineers. We are exploring a number of
options to develop training courses in basic and advanced EMI/C
applications, including seminars and workshops that delve into
the processes behind standards development for EMC. This training
will be online media based as well as delivered in person by world-renowned
experts (e.g., via the Distinguished Lecturer Program and other
avenues). More on this to come in the near future.
We are looking for volunteers to help develop the training programs
and educational curricula. Are you interested in helping to contribute
or even become a leader in this effort? If you are, we gladly
welcome your participation!
Now it would seem that the “need” for EMC education
cycles roughly with the generations, i.e., the emergence of a
generation of individuals who enter the engineering profession,
are faced early on in their careers with solving EMI/C problems,
and who remain as EMC engineers for the bulk of their career.
These EMC “veterans” who worked on solving EMI/C problems
early on in their jobs typically subscribed to the services of
professionals who helped train them and enhance their understanding
of EMC. Some joined professional organizations like the EMC Society
to learn the trade, become EMI/C experts themselves, as well as
network with other knowledgeable people in the field. So at certain
points in time, we have witnessed a clear and present need to
educate engineers in the importance of EMC in their work. Once
properly trained and entrenched in EMC, these individuals can
sustain high productivity and provide significant contributions
over the long term. These engineers adapt and apply their knowledge
and become part of the “EMC pack.” This does not mean
that they have no further need for some form of continuing education
in EMC in the course of their careers.
Times have changed. As electrical and electronics devices become
increasingly more complex, the gap between each generation is
closing and we find it ever more important to provide up-to-date
educational products and services more frequently. There are two
catalysts at work here: (1) more university students majoring
in electrical engineering today are graduating with EE degrees
with some specialty in or related to EMC; and (2) technology is
evolving so rapidly that it requires entry-level electrical and
electronics engineers to adapt ever more quickly to become EMC
experts on the job. So what used to be perhaps 10-15 or 15-20
years between major generations of EMC engineers and the need
for education in EMC has now likely dwindled down to less than
10 years. In reality, the need for EMC education is always there
for one reason or another. Today, there is a clear need for more
frequent EMC educational products and services than ever before
in our universities and in the work place. Other factors that
may work in concert with or against this trend include a rapidly
changing work force and job duties that cause a shift in expertise
and/or a change in emphasis on EMC in the workplace. Many forces
and factors are at play here, but the importance of EMC education
remains undiminished.
Remember, that except for what has taken place over the past 13
or so years as a result of the EMC Society’s University
Grant Program, there were virtually no “EMC Engineering”
undergraduates as such. Today, due to the success of the University
Grant Program, we have taken a significant leap forward in advancing
knowledge and understanding of EMC at the university and industry
levels. We continue to support and even expand what is considered
to be a vibrant and highly successful program for instituting
EMC education in colleges and universities throughout the world.
However, more work needs to be done. We must not rest on our laurels.
Keeping it Short!
This being our Summer issue, my hope was to keep this message
relatively short, so I’ll stop here and close by reminding
you that our next edition of the Newsletter will be devoted to
the 2007 EMC Symposium in Hawaii and coverage of our 50th anniversary
celebration. I can assure you that the next edition will be a
keeper! Dan Hoolihan has provided us some nostalgic tidbits in
this edition as a teaser to our next edition coverage. He has
done a wonderful job in making all the plans and arrangments to
commemorate our Society’s 50th anniversary. If you see him,
please give him a thumbs up for all his efforts.
I hope to help launch a new initiative under my tenure as President
to formally begin the process of carefully archiving the historical
records that Dan and his 50th Anniversary Committee have been
so diligent in gathering, sorting and organizing, and to maintain
them for the duration. This will prepare us to commemorate future
Society anniversary events and celebrate other major milestones
in our history.
Besides, our 60th anniversary is only ten years away!
Until next time, I hope you enjoy the painting! EMC
President’s
Message