Georgia Tech ECE Research Group
For students planning their grad classes in electromagnetics next year, the current slate of offerings is included below. Note that some of these courses have been moved to every other year to accommodate teaching burdens (at the moment, we are suffering a shortage of faculty instructors compared to student interest in these courses).
This lecture provides a quick overview of magnetic materials (for more in-depth coverage, check out this undergraduate lecture on magnetic materials). The final segment discusses the use of some special magnetic materials in electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems and other RFID applications.
Chris Valenta and Bashir Akbar built a 5.8 GHz backscatter semi-passive system for detecting real-time shocks in helmets. The primary use was concussion detection in sports.
In 2012, students Chris Valenta and Bashir Akbar put together a prototype 5.8 GHz backscatter sensor that was able to pull real time shock sensing data from the helmet of a sports player. Using a reader mounted on the side of a field, the microwave backscatter system grabbed 6-axis accelerometer and gyrometer data from a low-powered, micro controller-based system that ran off of a small coin cell battery. Variations of this system would serve as the template of future microwave backscatter radios.
Fun fact #1: The project was sponsored at the time by a small start-up named Thingamagigawerks.
Fun fact #2: A video of the helmet system in action can be seen here.
