Hands-on and Virtual Labs for Juniors’ Course on Applied Electromagnetics

Vladimir Mitin; Athos Chariton Petrou

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: NSF Grantees’ Poster Session
Tagged Division: Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 3
Page Numbers: 24.659.1 - 24.659.3
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20550
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/20550
Download Count: 371

Paper Authors

biography

Vladimir Mitin University at Buffalo, SUNY

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Dr. VLADIMIR V. MITIN, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering; University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY. Has more than 400 technical publications.

Vladimir Mitin has made considerable efforts to involve undergraduate and graduate students in his research.
• He has established a state-of-the-art research laboratory: Materials, Device and Circuit Simulations Laboratory.
• He graduated thirteen Ph.D. students and six MS students. He has taught Electromagnetic Fields and Waves for engineers five times.
He has revised and developed several other courses and disseminated these developments via textbooks:
• the course Solid State Electronics (I) has been developed into a textbook "Introduction to Solid State Electronics” (Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1996);
• the textbook "Quantum Heterostructures for Microelectronics and Optoelectronics" (Cambridge University Press, 1999) has been prepared for Advanced Solid State Electronics (I);
• the textbook “Introduction to Nanoelectronics: Science, Nanotechnology, Engineering, and Applications” (Cambridge University Press, 2008) has been written with two co-authors during the development of a new course for undergraduate students.

Current graduate students:
• Yanshu Li, from F‘2012, GRA, Ph.D. Student, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.
• Tim Yore, from S‘2011, GRA, Ph.D. Student, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.
• Guillaume Thomain, S’2011, GTA, Ph.D. Student, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Total number of graduate students advised = 22.
Total number of postdoctoral scholars sponsored = 11.

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biography

Athos Chariton Petrou SUBY at Buffalo

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Athos Petrou is a professor of Physics at SUNY Buffalo. His studies the magneto-optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures

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Abstract

Hands-on and Virtual Labs for Juniors’ Course on Applied ElectromagneticsIn current submission the authors report on a workshop that was organized as part of the effortson the outreach program of the NSF/TUES funded project “Synergy of educational tools forteaching electromagnetic fields and waves: lab experiments, educational Java applets, numericalmodeling, textbook with power point presentations”. Professors from the College of Nanoscienceand Engineering, University at Albany; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,Binghamton University; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, SyracuseUniversity; and Canisius College of Buffalo, who participated in this workshop, shortlydiscussed the newly developed lecture/lab course on Applied Electromagnetics for juniors, butmainly concentrated on the developed lab component of the project (hands-on labs) andaccompanying educational Java applets (virtual labs).The lab component includes an introductory lab on error propagation and seven hands-on labsthat cover major topics in the developed Applied Electromagnetics course: electromagnetic (EM)waves that includes polarization properties of EM waves, standing waves and double-slitinterference phenomenon, EM waves at the interface between two media, EM waves in opticallyactive media, propagation of EM waves on a transmission line, diffraction of EM waves by aperiodic structure, radiation pattern of EM waves created by a dipole antenna, and modulationand demodulation of EM waves (see Figs. 1-3).The participants of the workshop have performed hands-on and virtual labs during the first partof the day and then produced a written report with the analysis of the conducted experiments inthe afternoon. Each day was closed with the discussion about the experiments and the way howto improve the developed labs.At the end of workshop the assessment of experiments and accompanying applets was done. Theassessment data will be used for improvement of the newly developed course - especially forupdating the hands-on as well as virtual labs.The participants highlighted the positive effect of synergy of educational tools, i.e. “combinedaction” of the two types of labs on the students’ learning style: virtual experiments generatethought-provoking examples and data for student’s analysis, help to understand new conceptsand notions, and follow-up hands-on experiments give enhance students’ experimental skillswhich cannot be achieved carrying out only virtual experiments. From three modes ofcombining hands-on and virtual experiments the mode when first virtual labs are used foracquiring new theoretical concepts and notions and after this hands-on experiments are carriedout is the most optimal. They also highlighted the importance of virtual labs especially whenyou are teaching for an audience more than 100 undergraduate students.The participants of the workshop intend to adopt most of studied labs is their respectiveinstitutions.Fig. 1. Lab manual for the experiments developed for the Applied Electromagnetics course.Fig. 2. Experimental setup for study of: polarization properties of EM waves, diffraction ofEM waves by a periodic structure, and double-slit interference phenomenon.Fig. 3. Students working with experimental setup for study of EM wave propagationon a transmission line.

Citation
Format

Mitin, V., & Petrou, A. C. (2014, June), Hands-on and Virtual Labs for Juniors’ Course on Applied Electromagnetics Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20550

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                  Hands-on and Virtual Labs for Juniors’ Course on                            Applied ElectromagneticsIn current submission the authors report on a workshop that was organized as part of the effortson the outreach program of the NSF/TUES funded project “Synergy of educational tools forteaching electromagnetic fields and waves: lab experiments, educational Java applets, numericalmodeling, textbook with power point presentations”. Professors from the College of Nanoscienceand Engineering, University at Albany; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,Binghamton University; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, SyracuseUniversity; and Canisius College of Buffalo, who participated in this workshop, shortlydiscussed the newly developed lecture/lab course on Applied Electromagnetics for juniors, butmainly concentrated on the developed lab component of the project (hands-on labs) andaccompanying educational Java applets (virtual labs).The lab component includes an introductory lab on error propagation and seven hands-on labsthat cover major topics in the developed Applied Electromagnetics course: electromagnetic (EM)waves that includes polarization properties of EM waves, standing waves and double-slitinterference phenomenon, EM waves at the interface between two media, EM waves in opticallyactive media, propagation of EM waves on a transmission line, diffraction of EM waves by aperiodic structure, radiation pattern of EM waves created by a dipole antenna, and modulationand demodulation of EM waves (see Figs. 1-3).The participants of the workshop have performed hands-on and virtual labs during the first partof the day and then produced a written report with the analysis of the conducted experiments inthe afternoon. Each day was closed with the discussion about the experiments and the way howto improve the developed labs.At the end of workshop the assessment of experiments and accompanying applets was done. Theassessment data will be used for improvement of the newly developed course - especially forupdating the hands-on as well as virtual labs.The participants highlighted the positive effect of synergy of educational tools, i.e. “combinedaction” of the two types of labs on the students’ learning style: virtual experiments generatethought-provoking examples and data for student’s analysis, help to understand new conceptsand notions, and follow-up hands-on experiments give enhance students’ experimental skillswhich cannot be achieved carrying out only virtual experiments. From three modes ofcombining hands-on and virtual experiments the mode when first virtual labs are used foracquiring new theoretical concepts and notions and after this hands-on experiments are carriedout is the most optimal. They also highlighted the importance of virtual labs especially whenyou are teaching for an audience more than 100 undergraduate students.The participants of the workshop intend to adopt most of studied labs is their respectiveinstitutions.Fig. 1. Lab manual for the experiments developed for the Applied Electromagnetics course.Fig. 2. Experimental setup for study of: polarization properties of EM waves, diffraction ofEM waves by a periodic structure, and double-slit interference phenomenon.Fig. 3. Students working with experimental setup for study of EM wave propagationon a transmission line.
AU  - Vladimir Mitin
AU  - Athos Chariton Petrou
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Hands-on and Virtual Labs for Juniors’ Course on Applied Electromagnetics 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/20550
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20550
ER  -