The aim of this session is to give participants insight into the requirements of publishing educational research work in engineering education journals with a specific focus on the IEEE Transactions on Education. It will cover the areas of work and types of papers typically considered in scope for the journal and will give guidance on what is typically expected of papers by reviewers. The audience is Engineering Academics and Education researchers looking to develop their current educational research or educational conference papers into journal articles. Speaker(s): John Mitchell , Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/355260

It is well known that electromagnetic waves can penetrate many kinds of materials. When illuminated by electromagnetic waves, different materials will respond differently. Therefore, electromagnetic physics provides us with an essential tool for sensing and imaging. We can infer the properties of the targets under investigation from the measured electromagnetic signal. Electromagnetic sensing has been applied to hydrocarbon production, land mine detection, and many other areas since the 1920s. However, due to the limit in computing powers, researchers can only interpret the domain of investigation by directly browsing the recorded signal. Reasonable interpretation requires ample experience, but it still needs to be more accurate. In the 1970s, computers were used in data processing, and algorithms were developed to estimate the electromagnetic properties of the investigation domain from the recorded survey data. During this time, inversion algorithms could only reconstruct simple one-dimensional models with tens of unknowns based on linear approximation. Still, even so, it took a long time to compute. These days, nonlinear inversion algorithms can reconstruct three-dimensional models with millions of unknowns on high-performance computing platforms. Many new electromagnetic sensing methods were developed with these developments, such as the widely used marine-controlled source electromagnetic surveys for hydrocarbon explorations, breast cancer detection using microwaves, etc. With the help of new sensors, big data technology, massive parallelization, fast algorithms, electromagnetic sensing, and imaging has improved their effectiveness and gained more and more applications. In this talk, the presenter would like to discuss the fundamentals of electromagnetic sensing and imaging, the solution to electromagnetic inverse problems, and many practical examples from hydrocarbon exploration, radar imaging, biomedical diagnosis, non-destructive testing, etc. The presenter will discuss the challenges and new research directions for future electromagnetic sensing and imaging. Co-sponsored by: STARaCom Montreal Speaker(s): Prof. Maokun Li , Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/351678

In recent years, research in deep learning techniques has attracted much attention. With the help of big data technology, massively parallel computing, and fast optimization algorithms, deep learning has dramatically improved the performance of many problems in speech and image research. In electromagnetic engineering, physical laws provide the theoretical foundation for research and development. With the development of deep learning, improving learning capacity may allow machines to “learn” from a large amount of physics data and “master” the physical law in certain controlled boundary conditions. In the long run, combining fundamental physical principles with “knowledge” from big data could unleash numerous engineering applications limited by a lack of data information and computation ability. In this short tutorial, the presenter will share some of his learnings in deep learning techniques and discuss the potential and feasibility of applying deep learning in computational electromagnetics. The presenter hopes to explore the characteristics, feasibility, and challenges of deep learning methods in the field of computational electromagnetics through some examples, such as solving wave equations, array antenna synthesis, inverse scattering, etc. Co-sponsored by: STARaCom Montreal Speaker(s): Prof. Maokun Li , Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/351680

Wireless energy harvesting (WEH) and wireless power transfer (WPT) are two closely related topics: they both employ a critical device – a rectenna, which is defined as the combination of an antenna and a rectifier. It receives RF/microwave waves and converts them into DC energy/power which can then be stored or used by application devices. It is expected this technology would produce higher energy conversion efficiency than photovoltaic technology for electromagnetic waves in the future. Energy conversion efficiency is the critical and most important element for wireless energy harvesting (WEH) and wireless power transfer (WPT). How to design an efficient rectenna is a key challenge since this is a non-linear device whose performance is heavily affected by the input power and the load impedance. WEH is motivated by the demand for a low-cost and low-power supplier for many Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The conventional battery is good for many applications, but it has to be changed now and then which means a waste of human resources and materials. Due to the widespread use of wireless systems, a lot of electromagnetic energies are around us and available in the ambiance environment at different frequencies (such as FM, TV, mobile, and Wi-Fi signals). Rectennas, especially broadband rectennas, are the ideal device to harvest these energies. WPT is another major breakthrough that has made wireless charging possible and will enable many more anticipated ubiquitous IoT, EV, and medical applications. Unlike WEH, WPT is normally narrow-band and could be near-field or far-field. Thus the design requirements are different from WEH although they both use rectennas. In this Lecture, we are going to 1) introduce the rectenna and review major historical events and developments; 2) provide a comprehensive review of rectenna designs (including different topologies and their comparison); 3) discuss the state-of-the-art designs (including such as the application of metamaterials and surfaces) and challenges (e.g. how to make it compact and efficient); 4) explain its applications in a range of WEH and WPT, including some very ambitious projects in the world. Furthermore, it will include some life and video demonstrations produced by our research group. Co-sponsored by: Sataracom Montreal Speaker(s): Prof. Yi Huang, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/351635

Antennas are normally made of metal in order to achieve high radiation efficiency. Unlike metal antennas, liquid antennas are a new type of antenna that has some unique features and gained a lot of attention recently. The University of Liverpool has been working in this area for many years. In this talk, the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges of using such a liquid antenna for real work applications will be discussed at the beginning, and then it will be followed by the latest development on the liquid material and the liquid antenna designs and development. A new concept of using gravity in making liquid antennas for beam-steering and GPS applications will be used as an example in this talk. Other antennas, such as a hybrid antenna of the dielectric resonant antenna (DRA) and magneto-electronic (ME) dipole will also be introduced and discussed. The talk will be finished with the introduction of a new design that is suitable for antenna diversity and MIMO applications. Some relevant activities at the High-Frequency Engineering Group at the University of Liverpool will also be introduced briefly. Co-sponsored by: Sataracom Montreal Speaker(s): Prof. Yi Huang, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/351638