Computational Electromagnetics Has Changed My Life

COMPUTATIONAL ELECTROMAGNETICS HAS CHANGED MY LIFE DR. ZOLTAN CENDES Ansoft Corporation, Retired [email protected] The world has been transformed by computational electromagnetics. From cell phones to computers, from airplanes to automobiles, almost every device in use today has been designed in part through computational electromagnetics. To much of the world, computational electromagnetics is invisible in all but its effects; to those who work in computational electromagnetics, the changes to our lives due to computational electromagnetics are both evident and profound. As practitioners of computational electromagnetics, we know that smart phones wouldn’t be as smart, electric cars wouldn’t be as electric, and stealth airplanes wouldn’t be as stealthy, if computational electromagnetics had not evolved to predict electrical performance accurately. Computational electromagnetics begins with Maxwell’s equations. While Maxwell’s equations describe macroscopic electromagnetic fields perfectly, they can be solved analytically in only the simplest cases. The past fifty years has witnessed the rise of computational techniques to solve of Maxwell’s equations in general with increasing simplicity, capacity and fidelity. In this process, computational electromagnetics has been transformed from an area of basic research into an industry. Computational electromagnetics is no longer the sole domain of computational experts; it has become an ordinary tool used by engineers every day to optimize high performance designs. This talk describes the power of computational electromagnetics to transform lives now and in the future. It begins with the changes those working in computational electromagnetics have seen from the simple but effective Yee finite difference time domain algorithm to the more complex and powerful finite element methods. It describes the transformation of input procedures from manual mesh generation to fully automated procedures. It explains the techniques used to bury computational electromagnetics deep inside Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software where circuit and system level engineers can use electromagnetically accurate models in highlevel design. And it forecasts changes currently underway and those yet to be made in computational electromagnetics that will continue to transform lives in the future.

Short Bio.: Zoltan J. Cendes is the founder of Ansoft Corp., Pittsburgh, PA, which was acquired by ANsys Inc. 2008. Before retirement, he served as Ansoft's chief technology officer and was responsible for managing the company's research and development. In this role, he sets the overall direction of Ansoft's technology and products. He has made significant contributions in the area of finite element modeling of electromagnetic devices. In particular, he solved the problem of spurious modes that prior to his work had made the application of finite element methods in electrical engineering impractical. He, along with his coworkers, developed new types of finite elements called edge elements that eliminate the problem of spurious modes. He also introduced the Delaunay mesh generation algorithm and adaptive mesh refinement procedures to finite element analysis and the transfinite element method and model order reduction procedures to high frequency electromagnetics. Cendes' original research in these areas made possible many of Ansoft's products, including Maxwell™, Spicelink™ and HFSS™. Prior to forming Ansoft in 1984, Cendes served six years with the General Electric Corp., first in the Large Steam Turbine Generator Division and then in the Corporate Research and Development Center, where he was responsible for developing finite element computer codes. In 1980, he was appointed associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. In 1982, he joined the faculty of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, where he was a professor until 1996. Cendes received his MS and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from McGill University. Dr. Cendes is a Fellow of the IEEE, has served on the Editorial Board of IEEE Spectrum, on the International Steering Committee of the COMPUMAG Conference and as an IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (IEEE AP-S) Distinguished Lecturer. He is a member of the International Workshop on Finite Elements in Microwave Engineering Steering Committee.