ESR02 – Cathrine Feloups – EMC on Tour: The First Steps in Teaching
Based on my previous experience, I had been giving lectures for over three years. That is something I did at my previous university, and it was all done in Arabic, my native language. When I first arrived in the Netherlands to do my Ph.D. at The University of Twente, I wondered what would happen if I had the opportunity to give a lecture in English. My supervisors asked me to write an educational paper on a breakout box, which is a simple and safe box used to assess electromagnetic interference (EMI) and power quality (PQ) issues in the grid. Because the paper was accepted for publication at the EMC Europe conference in 2022, this step has been approved. Following that, I was left wondering what the next step would be.
I went on a one-day trip to Fontys Hogeschool in Eindhoven with my daily supervisor and two of my colleagues on October 12, 2022. We went to give a lecture about electromagnetic compatibility to more than 40 students. When I saw the number of students, I was concerned that I would be unable to adequately manage them.
That day began with a presentation on the fundamentals of EMC and some simple interference issues. Following that, we taught them about parasitic effects and how they can alter our perception of passive components, as well as some fundamentals about crosstalk. Anyone would think that the day would be a little dull for the young engineers, but the rest of the day was focused on some practical work using some of the University of Twente’s demos, making the day more beneficial for them. Going to follow that, we continued with the hands-on portion, showing the young students a variety of PCB boards, motor setup, and breakout. It was inspiring to see young engineers eager to learn more about EMC.
It was a very successful day for both the lecture part and the practical one because the student was very excited after finishing the day. The most interesting point is that the students asked me questions I had never asked myself before. Most of these were simple and I handled them and the rest which were not which gave me a guidance for the next tour to take into consideration these questions.
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors and colleagues for inviting me to join them on this tour, and I am confident that more tours and events will be held in the future.
