Invited talk: Dr. Lotfollah Shafai

The IEEE Northern Canada Section Antennas & Propagation Society and the Microwave Theory & Techniques Society (IEEE NCS APS/MTTS) joint chapter would like to invite you to attend the next installment of our invited talks.  Professor Lotfollah Shafai from the University of Manitoba will be giving a presentation titled “Challenges of Antenna Miniaturization“.

Where:

ICE 8-207, University of Alberta

When:

01-May-2017 01:00PM to 2:00PM

Abstract

Wireless communication is becoming an essential part of almost all new technologies, especially in personal communication, remote sensing, autonomous navigation, medical imaging and structural or personal health monitoring, to name a few. Since the dominant means of information exchange is electromagnetic waves, they need antennas to transmit and receive the waves and electronics to process them. However, antennas must interface two separate bounded and unbounded media, where waves have distinct and different sizes. Consequently, to interact efficiently with waves their dimensions have become wavelength dependent, limiting their size reductions. This is the major impediment for antenna miniaturization. On the other hand, advancement of traditional technologies and emergence of new ones require ongoing size reductions to incorporate more features and operate at lower cost. This size discrepancy, thus, has made antennas the “Achilles’ heel” of technology progress, and is not limited to any particular area. Any small reduction in the antenna size, without deteriorating their performance, will provide a major progress in related technologies. This presentation will address planar antennas, and highlight the penalties paid for their miniaturization using traditional design methods, and provide examples of new design techniques that can overcome them.

Biography

Lotfollah Shafai B.Sc. from University of Tehran in 1963 and M.Sc. and Ph.D., from University of Toronto, in 1966 and 1969. In November 1969, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba as a Lecturer, Assistant Professor 1970, Associate Professor 1973, Professor 1979, and Distinguished Professor 2002, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus 2016. His assistance to industry was instrumental in establishing an Industrial Research Chair in Applied Electromagnetics at the University of Manitoba in 1989, which he held until July 1994.
In 1986, he established the symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics, ANTEM, at the University of Manitoba, which has grown to be the premier Canadian conference in Antenna technology and related topics.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards. In 1978, his contribution to the design of the first miniaturized satellite terminal for the Hermes satellite was selected as the Meritorious Industrial Design. In 1984, he received the Professional Engineers Merit Award and in 1985, “The Thinker” Award from Canadian Patents and Development Corporation. From the University of Manitoba, he received the “Research Awards” in 1983, 1987, and 1989, the Outreach Award in 1987 and the Sigma Xi Senior Scientist Award in 1989. In 1990 he received the Maxwell Premium Award from IEE (London) and in 1993 and 1994 the Distinguished Achievement Awards from Corporate Higher Education Forum. In 1998 he received the Winnipeg RH Institute Foundation Medal for Excellence in Research. In 1999 and 2000 he received the University of Manitoba Research Award. He is a life Fellow of IEEE and a life Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada. He was a recipient of the IEEE Third Millenium Medal in 2000 and in 2002 was elected a Fellow of The Canadian Academy of Engineering. In 2003 he received the IEEE Canada “Reginald A. Fessenden Medal” for “Outstanding Contributions to Telecommunications and Satellite Communications”, and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Synergy Award for “Development of Advanced Satellite and Wireless Antennas”. He held a Canada Research Chair in Applied Electromagnetics from 2001 to 2015, and was the International Chair of Commission B of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) for 2005-2008. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and was the recipient of IEEE Chen-To-Tai Distinguished Educator Award. In 2011 he received the Killam Prize in Engineering from The Canada Council, for his “outstanding Canadian career achievements in engineering, and his research on antennas”. In 2013 he received The “John Kraus antenna Award” from IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society “For contributions to the design and understanding of small high efficiency feeds and terminals, wideband planar antennas, low loss conductors, and virtual array antennas”. In 3014 he was the recipient of Edward E. Altshuler Best paper Prize from IEEE APS Magazine. His students have received numerous Best paper awards from IEEE, and young scientist awards from URSI.