Here is a “stealth” electromagnetic design problem. Hint: The problem isn’t that hard if you view the system as a cascade of TEM transmission lines rather than dielectric slabs. A Smith chart might help.
Archives for August 2018
RF Band Chart
Ever had trouble navigating the Byzantine nomenclature for RF frequency bands used by engineers? I though I would post a link to this helpful chart, which my students have found helpful in the past. Download the following RF band chart.
IEEE SPAWC 2018 Presentation on Perfect Pulses for ReMoRA
Mike Varner recently returned from Kalamata, Greece, where he presented original research on the use of perfect pulses for scattering low-powered digital signals onto existing radio transmissions (often referred to as ambient communications or ambient scatter in the research literature; we like the term ReMoRa — Reflection of Modulated Radio — since it conjures up the analogous image of a “suckerfish” signal). Perfect pulses are signal components with remarkable DC-nulling properties; from these primitive signal constructs, a radio can construct informative digital signals that enable a number of applications, from clandestine signal transmission to low-power/batteryless sensors that “piggy-back” their information onto FM, TV, or cellular transmissions. Download his poster presentation here.
Beautiful Chess Games: Alterman vs. Deep Fritz, 2000
Although not related directly to engineering, I thought that I’d include some posts to a favorite personal site, chessgames.com, particularly in light of the recent passing of the last site founder. Chess games do have bearing on the state and nature of game theory and artificial intelligence, particularly when humans are playing computers. The top computers have been beating the top Grandmasters in chess for a while now, but there are often illustrative games that beautifully demonstrate the difference between men and machine. Here, beauty can transcend computation. Check out the position at move 26.