Fun with Antennas

Dr. Cynthia Furse is a Distinguished Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Utah. Dr. Furse is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES). Her technological innovations and patents include development of a system to locate intermittent electrical faults on aging electrical wiring (aircraft, photovoltaics, rail, etc.), with which she founded a successful spin-off company, LiveWire Innovation. She is also a pioneering researcher in the development of telemetry antennas for medical implants, and fast methods for predicting the statistical variation in bioelectromagnetic applications. 

Ok, that's the official stuff. A little about who I really am. I'm from Hartford, Maine, a rural farming/logging area in central Maine. I loved spending time with my grandparents and cousins in the fields and woods. I grew up in Logan, Utah, where I had a really creative group of high school friends who had a lot of good times together in orchestra (I play the violin and viola), theater (I played Laura in the Glass Menagerie, the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, and Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown), debate (I went to Nationals! The year it was in SLC, oh well), Girl Scouts, and other volunteer activities. I really wanted to change the world, so after a variety of explorations, settled on Electrical Engineering, and it's been a great journey (still is!). I came to the U for my undergrad degree, and had great professors who challenged and taught us. I loved learning about what they did in their labs, and even had a chance to join in with undergraduate research, in the lab of Prof. Magdy Iskander. That's where my love of Electromagnetics took real root. I did my masters with Prof. Iskander, too, and quickly became attached to research -- it's so creative! That led to a PhD also at the U, with Prof. Om Gandhi, a world leader in bioelectromagnetics. I started teaching as a master's student, and quickly fell in love with the experience of helping others reach the "lightbulb" moments. And the thing about changing the world? YES, it's real. I've helped develop tools that are used to be sure cell phones meet electromagnetic (safety) guidelines, developed a system for locating intermittent faults on live wires (and founded a company that has helped build systems for aircraft maintenance, railway cable theft prevention, oil and gas exploration reliability, and more), and helped jumpstart antenna concepts for medical implants.