Introduction

Welcome to ECE 3305 -- Electromagnetics Laboratory!

Complete the following steps to help you get ready for your course.

Get to Know Your Instructor

Hi! I'm Professor Cindy Furse (Links to an external site.). I'm so pleased to join you on your ECE learning adventure this semester. I started my electrical engineering journey as a freshman at the U in 1981. It was an exciting time ... the advent of the MRI machine, LEDs and computational modeling just coming into their own, Arpanet (the predecessor of the Internet), virtual reality and video games all fledgling inventions at the U. I graduated with my PhD in 1994, developing methods to test electromagnetic power absorption for safety of cell phones. The computational methods we pioneered are now used extensively throughout the industry, and I've extended this work into the development of implantable antennas for embedded medical devices (pacemakers, neural transmitters, etc.). You'll be learning about some of these ideas in this lab. I started teaching as a graduate student, and truly found my passion. I became a professor at USU from 1997-2002, when I returned to the U and have been a professor here ever since. During that time, there were a series of fatal airplane crashes (TWA800, SwissAir111, and more) attributed to electrical wiring faults (you'll learn more about that in the first project in ECE3300). I invented a method called Spread Spectrum Time Domain Reflectometry (SSTDR (Links to an external site.)) that can detect and precisely locate faults on live electrical systems while they are energized and functioning. I started a company called LiveWire Innovation (Links to an external site.), which has helped implement this for aircraft, the British Rail system, off shore well drilling platforms, and more. We are working on implementations for photovoltaic installations now. You can find out more about my research here. You might even be interested in getting involved in undergraduate research (Links to an external site.) at the U, with either me or many of our other fantastic faculty. I also thoroughly enjoy experimenting with teaching. I was a pioneer in the flipped classroom approach in 2007 (when tablet PCs were first becoming available), and now I'm interested in how we can do a really good job with a flexible flipped classroom, where you can join in person or virtually, depending on your interests and needs at the time (you'll have this flexibility in ECE3300, it's not quite so easy in the ECE3305 lab, since we rely on specialty equipment). It's called HyFlex (Hyrbid Flexible), but I hope you'll find it "Hyper Flexible". I hope you enjoy the semester and learn a lot. This course provides the foundation for all of your work going forward, so be patient with yourself as you work through this material, which is likely to be very new to you.

Electrical engineering has enabled me to live my dreams, as I hope it will enable you to live yours. I have a really fun job, work with great people (like you), and am always learning new things. I'm never bored. I live in a cabin in the mountains, with my husband of 39 years, two dogs, and three horses (my little girl dream, ok, they live outside the cabin). I ride pretty much every day, and often pack or camp, enjoying Utah's mountains, meadows, canyons, and deserts. I play the violin and viola (classical and fiddle), and my husband is a luthier. We have two grown kids (our daughter also got her ECE degree from the U, and did our joint MS/MBA program (Links to an external site.) ... I highly recommend it). The best part is we have nine grandkids, who all live close enough to play. (Want some ECE fun with kids? Check out https://squishycircuits.com/ (Links to an external site.) )

So let's talk about the Covid Elephant-in-the-room. This lab requires equipment that is only available in the labs, so we'll be here in person, and we need to make every possible effort to keep everyone healthy, so we can stay in person. Please keep track of current guidelines, realizing they may be updated as situations change throughout the semester. More details, including where you can get free testing and vaccines on campus is here: https://coronavirus.utah.edu/ . If you have any symptoms, concerns about exposure, or any reason that it might not be prudent to attend lab, then PLEASE DON'T. I will be completely flexible about deadlines. If you miss lab one week, email your TA, and arrange to do it the next week, or even the week after that. If you experience symptoms, or are exposed, PLEASE GET TESTED, and please REPORT a positive test to the university or to me, so that we can let others in the class know they may have been exposed, while protecting your privacy.

We have two excellent TAs this semester -- Shaun McKeller and Kaiser Niknam.They are both excited to be helping you with these labs. The equipment we'll be using is brand new this year, and the lab is newly remodeled, so you'll have some extra good resources to learn about electromagnetics.

--- To a Great Semester! Dr. Furse

Read the course syllabus

The Syllabus will provide you with:

Course Description: overview of course information, goals & objectives, required materials, & methods of evaluation
Course Policies: submitting assignments, grading, & accommodations
Student & Instructor Expectations: what you agree to upon taking this course
Institutional Policies: drop & withdrawal, plagiarism, health & safety, & support for students of all backgrounds
Course Content Summary: due dates & important assignments

Please read it carefully. You should be familiar with the schedule and process of the course.

Plan Your assignments & exams Schedule

Review the Syllabus to see what assignments are scheduled for this semester.

Take note of these and their due dates so that you do not miss attending! In the event you are not able to attend due to illness, please email your TA and arrange a different week to do the lab.

Check out your resources

The University of Utah has a lot of excellent resources available to students both on and off campus. Take advantage of them! The Resources page covers:

Course Resources: helpful links, textbooks, and more, just for our class.
Tech Help: what's used in this course, what's available to you, & how to get help.
Exam Services: how to schedule proctored exams & what you need to know about exam conditions.
Support: what academic, wellness, community building, and career assistance resources are available from the U.