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Session 1332

A Novel Microwave Engineering Course in a Collaborative Electrical Engineering Program

Asif Shakur1, Protap Pramanick2, Ali Eydgahi3, Ibibia K. Dabipi3, Mohammad Fotouhi 3 1 Salisbury University/ 2K&L Microwave/ 3University of Maryland Eastern Shore Salisbury, Maryland / Salisbury, Maryland / Princess Anne, Maryland

In this paper, we describe a fairly innovative microwave engineering course with a concurrent laboratory. This course is offered in the context of a collaborative electrical engineering program among Salisbury University (SU), University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), and University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP). In contrast to the traditional lineup of topics, we develop the course using circuit theory all the way through ABCD and Scattering matrices, transmission lines and impedance matching. Only then, about mid-semester, do we make our first reference to Maxwell’s Equations and develop the theory of waveguides. In order to address the pedagogical concern expressed in the literature, we have retained the almost moribund slotted lines while concomitantly introducing the snazzy network analyzers in the laboratory experience. The need for designing such a course was motivated by the inexplicable - but welcome- presence of over half a dozen microwave companies concentrated in a narrow rural corridor on the lower eastern shore of Maryland coupled with a severe shortage of qualified engineers desperately sought by these companies.

I. Introduction

Microwave engineering and communications have rapidly and inexorably become a part of everyday life. It may well be that a nodding familiarity with these areas may be deemed indispensable for all electrical engineers and physicists in the very near future. For students and faculty at Salisbury University and UMES (University of Maryland, Eastern Shore) located on the lower eastern shore of Maryland, our neighborhood has been a veritable “microwave valley” for quite sometime. In addition to the collaborative Electrical Engineering program with University of Maryland Eastern Shore and University of Maryland College Park, Salisbury University offers a B.S. degree in physics. The need to expose our students to microwave engineering and communications is clear and present [1] – [3].

It is well known in the education community that adding new courses to an already bloated curriculum cannot be taken lightly or in a cavalier manner. If the addition of a course is exigent

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition

Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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Shakur, A., & Fotouhi, K., & Eydgahi, A., & Dabipi, I. (2003, June), A Novel Microwave Engineering Course In A Collaborative Engineering Program Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--11455