Teaching

In Plato’s Academy, the instructor’s role was to lead the students to discovering knowledge themselves, by posing questions and exhaustively surveying potential answers. This process can be transferred into the modern classroom by integrating research and teaching to inculcate critical thinking in students. Treating even fundamental concepts as research results that are open to discussion, one can effectively seek student’s participation and feedback.

A prerequisite for students’ active involvement is their inspiration to do the hard work of learning. To that end, an effective approach is to lead students from any prior knowledge they have on a subject to the course learning objectives in three stages: “inspire, inform, inculcate” (Fig. 1).

Each new chapter is introduced by pointing out connections to (a) other courses, (b) established or emerging technologies and (c) the societal impact of such technologies. As an example, the theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in lossy media underpins the operation of the popular microwave oven, but also that of medical imaging and ablation technologies used for the detection and cure of some forms of cancer. Students can connect such technologies and applications to their background, learning and even personal experiences and use that connection as a motivation to delve into each topic.

The “inform” stage includes multiple ways to engage students with diverse learning styles. To that end, experimental demonstrations and computer-based concept visualization can be integrated into the regular flow of my lectures. While students were used to seeing experiments only in the lab, the integration of experiments and their extensive discussion during the lecture is often received very positively. Intuitive, visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners are attracted to these demonstrations, whereas read/write learners and analytical thinkers can follow detailed, organized notes on the board. Additionally, 10-20 min “concept videos” can be used to provide an easy to follow, quick introduction to new concepts. These videos are also part of the “inform” stage, preparing students for a more in-depth lecture. Figure 2 depicts how these various instruments of instruction fit into a truly inclusive classroom.

• ECE221/259: Electricity and Magnetism

• ECE110: Introduction to Electrical Engineering

• ECE1252: Introduction to Computational Electrodynamics

• ECE1228: Electromagnetic Theory

• ECE1229: Advanced Antenna Theory

• ECE1243: Special Topics (Advanced Electromagnetic Theory)

To date, 87 undergraduate ECE students have worked with us towards a fourth year capstone project and 16 Engineering Science students have worked towards a 4th year thesis. We offer ambitious undergraduate research projects that effectively teach students how to complete advanced research projects, and how to document, present and publish their results in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. These projects focus on emerging research areas and interdisciplinary problems, where talented undergraduate students can make significant contributions. Some of our results have been published in IEEE international conferences, earning distinctions such as an honorable mention in the 2019 IEEE Int. Symp. on Antennas and Propagation (see also undergraduate student honors here). In total, we have published 13 peer-reviewed conference papers with undergraduate advisees.

• Physics-based machine learning models for indoor Wi-Fi

• Physics-based machine learning models for indoor wireless localization

• Machine Learning for Electromagnetic Field Computations

• Machine Learning for Ground Penetrating Radar Target Recognition

• A touch panel simulation environment

• Design and implementation of a multi-transmitter wireless power transfer system

• A Portable Harmonic Radar Wireless Tracking and Telemetry System

• RFID Tags for Wildlife Monitoring