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Dr. W. Hoefer, President of Faustus Scientific Corporation, spoke with Professor Natalia Georgieva about her experience with MEFiSTo-2D and 3D. With her kind permission we have created hyperlinks to her web-based teaching resources for the benefit of our clientele. You will find these links in the text of the interview below.
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Professor Georgieva received the Dipl. Eng. degree from the Technical University of Varna, Bulgaria, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. She was awarded an NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1998. She carried out her research initially in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. In May 1998 she joined the Simulation Optimization Sytems Research Laboratory, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Since 1999 she is Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University. Her research expertise includes computational electrodynamics, computer-aided design of microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuits, multilayer printed circuit boards, and general guiding and radiating structures. She teaches courses in "Theory and Applications in Electromagnetics" and "Modern Antennas in Wireless Telecommunications". |
Here is Dr. Hoefer's conversation with Professor Georgieva:
- W. Hoefer:
- Dr. Georgieva, why did you decide to introduce MEFiSTo in your courses at McMaster University?
- N. Georgieva:
- I have focused for several years on research in time-domain computational electrodynamics. I, therefore, believe strongly in the importance of the time domain approach, not only in research but also in teaching. When I developed a new undergraduate course on Theory and Applications in Electromagnetics at McMaster, I was looking for software that would complement and illustrate the theoretical concepts I was going to present in class. When I saw a presentation on MEFiSTo-2D, I knew right away that this was the kind of software I was looking for.
- W. Hoefer:
- What exactly were you looking for?
- N. Georgieva:
- Above all, I wanted my students to gain a thorough understanding of wave propagation, reflection and scattering on transmission lines. There exist plenty of "canned" wave simulations that show traveling and standing sinewaves, but I was looking for a more general simulation capability that lent itself to experimentation and allowed the students to follow up on "what if...?" type of questions.
- W. Hoefer:
- What features of MEFiSTo did you find particularly useful for your requirements?
- N. Georgieva:
- I found that MEFiSTo is very lab-oriented and easy to use. This allows the students to master the various features of MEFiSTo in a very short time. Furthermore, the software contains a complete suite of Virtual Electromagnetics Experiments that I could easily adapt to my course objectives. MEFiSTo does not only generate very accurate results that students can compare with theoretical results, but the dynamic visualization of data and fields also provides intuitive understanding of the physics behind the abstract formulas of field theory.
- W. Hoefer:
- How did you integrate MEFiSTo into your teaching program?
- N. Georgieva:
- MEFiSTo is great for teaching field and wave concepts in a lecture presentation. For this I prefer the powerful MEFiSTo-3D Pro which allows me to project realistic 3D electromagnetic situations anywhere with my laptop computer. I like the possibility to embed MEFiSTo objects into other Windows applications, such as PowerPoint. However, I also wanted my students to have "hands-on" access to the software in the laboratory that is part of my undergraduate course EE 3FI4 Theory and Applications in Electromagnetics . Therefore, I acquired a site license and created a six-hour laboratory segment titled "TEM Transmission Lines Laboratory" that comprises ten virtual experiments on propagation, transmission and scattering of transient and time harmonic fields on TEM transmission lines, and one quarter-wave transformer design project. Building on the Virtual Electromagnetics Laboratory and the extensive collection of examples that come with the MEFiSTo-2D software, I was able to prepare a complete manual for this laboratory in less than two weeks, including easy-to-follow instructions for the students on how to use MEFiSTo.
- W. Hoefer:
- How did your students respond to this virtual laboratory experience?
- N. Georgieva:
- I noticed two marked effects on the students. Firstly, they were quite excited by the ability to visualize transient and moving fields. That really motivated them to study the theoretical foundations of what they could see on the screen. Secondly, the experiments helped them to gain a much better understanding of the wave concepts we derived and studied in the course.
- W. Hoefer:
- What features of MEFiSTo do you like best, and why?
- N. Georgieva:
- The most attractive feature of all MEFiSTo Simulators is the realistic display of electromagnetic wave propagation, reflection and scattering. Time domain simulation makes much more sense to students than complex frequency domain models of fields. I also like the intuitive user interface. It is easy to learn and to use. The electronic help facility is very handy and clearly structured. The Tutorial and the Virtual Electromagnetics Laboratory cover already most of the experiments I needed for my course. Another important feature is the impressive computational speed. Even relatively large problems take only seconds to solve.
- W. Hoefer:
- Are you using MEFiSTo-3D Pro in your research as well?
- N. Georgieva:
- Yes, indeed, we have started a project on the characterization of via interconnects in multilayer circuit boards. We use MEFiSTo-3D Pro to perform transient analyses of these interconnects and to verify if certain parasitic responses that we see in the network analyzer measurements are actually due to the measurement set-up, or whether they are genuine responses of the interconnects themselves. Both the wideband S-parameter extraction and the field display features are very useful for these investigations. In the future I plan to use MEFiSTo in my research project on time domain optimization of microwave components.
- W. Hoefer:
- Thank you, Professor Georgieva, for sharing your experience and your excellent didactic material with us.
For more information on Professor Georgieva's teaching and research activities, please visit Professor Georgieva's webpage, or contact her by e-mail at talia@mcmaster.ca
