Authors: Shyam S. Pattnaik and Jayant G. Joshi
Source: FERMAT, Volume 3, Education 1, May_June-2014
Abstract: In India, it is observed that the subject Antennas and Propagation in undergraduate program of electronics and communication engineering is losing interest among students due to its complicated mathematical nature, inadequate laboratory facilities and lack of experience of young faculty members to correlate mathematics with the engineering phenomenon. In spite of core subject of the electronics and communication discipline both teacher and the students adopt casual approach about this subject and it remains effectively unattended. After graduation, few students select the profession as a microwave antenna engineer in the microwave antenna based industries. RF communication based industries are lacking qualified antenna designers and microwave engineers to cater their needs. Therefore, on an experiment basis summer training was conducted at the antenna and microwave laboratory of National. Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chandigarh, India for a group of twenty students from Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, India affiliated engineering institutions. In this activity the groups of students’ could understand the theory and implemented the microstrip patch and wired antennas for different applications. This paper presents systematic strategies used for effective implementation of summer training to design, fabricate and test different antennas. This training module is found to be well-suited to understand the microwave theory, antennas and propagation by hands-on experience through different fabrication steps, testing and measurement of different antennas. The antennas have been designed, fabricated, tested and the various parameters have been measured by the students. The feedback provided by students and faculty experts indicated the success and fruitfulness of this approach to teach and learn the subjects like microwave engineering and antenna and propagation theory.
Index Terms: Antennas and propagation, electromagnetic simulators, implementation model, microwave theory, mixed mode learning approach, summer training
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Undergraduate Students’ Summer Training on Design, Fabrication, and Testing of Antennas a Case Study for Effective Learning