Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics: From Computational and Design Methodologies to Biomedical and Sensing Applications
Dr. Branislav M. Notaros
Abstract
As a community, in 2023 we celebrated 150 years of Maxwell’s equations, and computational electromagnetics (CEM) has a history of about 75 years. In 2024, the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) celebrated its 75th Anniversary, with both the CEM and AP-S having interwoven developments of 75 years, a half of the history of Maxwell’s equations. This plenary talk presents a quick overview of 75 years of research in CEM with an emphasis on current trends and future prospects of computation and design within antenna technology and applied electromagnetics. The talk specifically discusses an area of paramount importance for computation and design where historically progress was slow presenting a synergistic combination of error estimation and control, adaptive refinement, and uncertainty quantification for CEM, which are essential for modern effective and reliable simulation-based design in mission-critical applications. The talk also presents advanced engineering applications combining electromagnetics, antennas, and propagation concepts, techniques, and technologies with emerging interdisciplinary topics, to solve general real-world problems with impacts on wireless communication, medical imaging and diagnostics, and remote sensing/radar meteorology. The applications include cyber-physical sensing systems in smart underground mining; design of RF coils/antennas for next-generation high-field, high-frequency magnetic resonance imaging scanners, which provide higher spatial resolution of images and thus better diagnostics; direct electromagnetic coupling system for orthopaedic fracture-healing diagnostics with telemedicine framework, with specially designed noninvasive external microwave sensors providing reliable and affordable predictions and diagnostics of bone healing many times faster than using radiographic methods (X rays); and optical and radar measurements, modeling, and characterization of snowflakes and snow. While these topics and applications are really “all over” science and engineering, the talk will focus on the strong interweaving common thread among all of them – antennas and electromagnetics.
Biography
Branislav M. Notaros is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director of Electromagnetics Laboratory, and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Colorado State University. Previously, he held assistant/associate-professor positions at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and University of Belgrade. His research contributions are in computational and applied electromagnetics. His publications include about 330 journal and conference papers, and textbooks “Electromagnetics” (2010) and “MATLAB-Based Electromagnetics” (2013) with Pearson Prentice Hall and “Conceptual Electromagnetics” (2017) with CRC Press. Prof. Notaros serves as President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), Immediate Past President of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES), Immediate Past Chair of the USNC-URSI Commission B, and Track Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. He served as General Chair of the IEEE APS/URSI 2022 Denver Conference, Chair of the IEEE AP-S Meetings Committee, Chair of the Joint Meetings Committee, and AP-S AdCom member. He was the recipient of the 1999 IEE Marconi Premium, 2005 IEEE MTT-S Microwave Prize, 2022 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Edward E. Altshuler Prize Paper Award, 2019 ACES Technical Achievement Award, 2014 Carnegie Foundation Colorado Professor of the Year Award, 2015 ASEE ECE Distinguished Educator Award, 2015 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award, and many other research and teaching awards. He is Fellow of IEEE and ACES.