Synopsis

• Published by Wiley-Interscience, Chichester, UK
• ISBN 978-0-470-72709-6; 424 pages
• Companion website material; 172 pages
• Release date: August 1, 2008

• Wiley Link: http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470727098.html

• Amazon Link:

  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electromagnetic-Foundations-Electrical-Engineering-Brandao/dp/0470727098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217322687&sr=1-1

• The primary goal of the textbook on Electromagnetic Foundations of Electrical Engineering is to provide undergraduate students taking courses in electrical engineering with a scientifically founded unified basis of fundamental knowledge on electromagnetic field phenomena, which will enable them to grasp advanced matters and specialized applications that will be dealt with later in their courses or that they will come across in their professional lives as engineers.

• Several distinguishing features make this new textbook unique in its area.

  It is a balanced broad scope foundations book. The emphasis is on basic principles, concepts and governing laws that can be used indistinctly by electrical engineering students pursuing studies in sub-areas as diverse as power and energy systems, telecommunications, circuits & systems, control systems, bioengineering, etc. As a means to reach and serve a larger as possible readership, biasing in a specific sub-area has been deliberately avoided.

• Electrical engineering professionals (practitioners) with a need for a refresher course in electromagnetic foundations will also find the book a valuable asset.

• A project-solving oriented posture is adopted in order to more easily capture the reader's interest. However, it is not our intention to provide ready-made recipes or rote procedures to the student; our approach emphasizes problem solving as a thought process based on concepts and on concept linking. Just at the beginning of the book, a project portfolio is proposed and offered to the student in order to capture their attention and trigger their curiosity (project solutions will be available apart). These projects tie together a diversity of knowledge components whose roots come from different chapters in the text; this salient feature is hoped to help readers understand the big picture, avoiding segmented perspectives. The key idea is to enable students with knowledge-integration skills so that, at the end, after completing reading the book, they can be able to solve the various problems and questions included in the proposed project portfolio. When they do, both the students and the book will have accomplished their goals. In addition, in all chapters, several fully worked out application examples are offered to the student in order to illustrate the theory and concepts that have been introduced and developed just before. End-of-chapter homework problems intended to help guiding students on their learning process are also included; the suggested problems are of practical interest and focus on engineering applications.

• The material covered in the book has been conceived to be taught at the fourth or fifth semester of the first cycle of studies leading to a master's degree in the spirit defined by the Bologna Declaration, whose process is hoped to be fully implemented around 2010 by the majority of the European higher education establishments. However, the utilization of this book is not restricted to intra European walls, on the contrary, its content, its smooth buildup, as well as its presentation style makes this book suited to be adopted in any top tier university in the world.

• The topics addressed in Electromagnetic Foundations of Electrical Engineering are confined to a teaching/learning space of a single semester, before which students are supposed to have already acquired the necessary basic skills and knowledge on both Mathematics and Physics. Therefore, given the allotted time limitations, a very judicious choice not only of the subject matters, but also of their methodological presentation, becomes an imperative and difficult task. In addition to impeding time limitations (typical lecture times do not globally exceed 40 hours per semester), another challenge this book is faced with has to do with the average preparation background of students. Although the panorama may change from country to country, our long teaching experience recommends that a lot of caution may be needed. Taking for granted that students do already master key concepts on electromagnetism can be the first step for a failure. Even worse, we have witnessed, in many cases, that students have been exposed to some sort of misleading ideas, meaning that an additional effort aimed at deconstructing some preconceived or pre-acquired concepts cannot be avoided for the sake of a sound lifelong preparation.

• The book is organized into four parts, divided into several chapters. Our starting point is the Maxwell equations. From them the fundamental laws and principles governing the static and time-varying electric and magnetic fields are derived. Results are subsequently particularized for slow time-varying electromagnetic field problems (steady-state sinusoidal circuit analysis and transient phenomena) and for rapid time-varying electromagnetic field problems (electromagnetic waves and transmission line theory).

• The presentation of the book subject matters starts with very simple phenomena and proceeds, chapter upon chapter, considering progressively difficult topics. Although the materials are arranged in traditional chapter form, a unique approach with this book is that its matters are not tightly compartmented. Matters belonging to advanced chapters are frequently built upon antecedent topics, taking advantage of existing similarities among governing equations and making use of contact points that may exist among different concepts. This approach not only contributes to a unified vision of the book's content but also allows the students to correlate apparently distinct topics, enabling them to develop a correct frame of thought where knowledge integration is a prominent objective.

• Students using this book are expected to attain a level of competence that will enable them to easily follow up advanced classes to be taught subsequently in their courses, namely, electromagnetic waves, radiation, antennas, microwaves, optics, instrumentation and measurement, electromagnetic compatibility, electrical machines, power systems analysis, etc.

• The matters dealt with throughout Electromagnetic Foundations of Electrical Engineering obey the school of thought traditional to Central Europe universities: rigorous concepts, solid ideas, clear introduction of approximations, use of deductive methodology, and rejection of ready-made recipes. This approach is seasoned with a friendly presentation of all matters aimed at catching the student's attention to the central issues at discussion. In addition, special emphasis is placed on the examination and criticism of a few aspects where wrong preconceived ideas are suspected to exist.

• Formal demonstrations of certain results and theorems are absolutely necessary; however, in some instances they will be avoided or alleviated whenever possible. In fact, some results will be derived by simply invoking duality principles or by making use of existing analogies with previously treated matters; this methodology not only saves time, but also, and again, contributes to the global goal of knowledge integration.

• The organization and style of this book reflect the experience of the author as a faculty member of the Instituto Superior Técnico - IST -the School of Engineering of the Technical University of Lisbon- where, as a full professor, he has been teaching and doing research on electromagnetics for three decades.

To the Student

• This book has been written having in mind not only my own students but also electrical engineering students in general from all over the world including the European students now being faced with the Bologna process challenges. The promotion of widespread student mobility is a cornerstone of the Bologna process. By using the ECTS - European credit transfer system, students can freely move from country to country to take university courses in whatever disciplines they feel interested. This will contribute to tightening the cultural links among citizens of various nationalities and, moreover, will increase the international competitiveness of the European system of higher education.

• With the potential for serving students from many countries (inside and outside Europe ), this book has been written in English. The reason for this choice is two-fold, on one hand English is, nowadays, the most commonly accepted language for the dissemination of scientific knowledge, on the other hand, the learning and application of a non-native second language is, by itself, a soft-skill also cherished by the Bologna reform. In any case I will strive to use as plain English as possible, avoiding erudition twists and complicated phraseology.

• The material presented in Electromagnetic Foundations of Electrical Engineering lays on a substrate of knowledge already provided by the basic sciences of Mathematics and Physics. As a student you are supposed to be acquainted with certain topics, such as, linear algebra, differential equations, integral calculus, vector analysis, and complex functions. If you still have difficulties with those topics you may have to recap them in order to refresh your skills.

• This book is not a treatise on electricity and magnetism, its scope is far less ambitious. The book content is to be delivered in a single semester course, and is aimed to provide you with a scientifically founded unified basis of fundamental knowledge on electromagnetic field phenomena that will help you follow up more advanced matters you should learn ahead in your courses. Matters are introduced in a systematic and friendly manner, proceeding from the more simple topics to the more difficult ones, using a slow buildup process. In addition, a series of application examples and homework problems have been prepared to help you through the learning process. The fact that the book is partitioned into chapters does not imply that you can skip some of them. Because subject matters are deeply interrelated you must try to adhere to the normal chapter sequence, otherwise you may be wasting your time or failing to get an integrated comprehensive view of the electromagnetic phenomena.

• At the beginning of the book you will find a project portfolio which includes vast examples of problems that you may encounter during your life either as a student or as a professional. Those projects were conceived so as to merge a variety of knowledge components coming from different chapters in the text. You may start by skimming through the proposed project themes just to get an idea of what this book is about and, also, to realize what you will have to learn. Once you have finished reading the book you should get back to the project portfolio and try to solve the proposed projects. If you succeed, it will mean that your goals have been accomplished; you got really prepared and should be confident about your new acquired skills. Project-solving is a well-proven methodology in any learning process. But be aware, yourself, not your instructor, are supposed to do that job. Let me use a metaphor to remind you that no one can learn to ride a bicycle by seeing others do. You have to exercise until you learn.

• A final word: do not believe people who tell you that learning is fun. Learning involves a lot of work and persistent effort, most especially when the matters being studied are of an abstract kind. Do not be worried when difficulties arise, do not give up, recap and recap until the source of difficulty is clearly identified; then, debate the issue with your classmates or ask your instructor for assistance. Further, if you wish, I will gladly help you (you can reach me at brandao.faria@ieee.org). Fun, comes only at the end of the process after many hours of struggle. The moment you realize you have been empowered with new valuable knowledge and feel that you have become intellectually richer, then, and only then, you will really experience the feeling of fun.

To the Instructor

• The failure or success of delivering a university course (any course) relies mainly on the pedagogical skills and scientific preparation of the instructor in charge. A good book can help a lot, but, just by itself, it is not a guaranty of success.
• The present book on electromagnetic foundations of electrical engineering has been conceived in order to assure that its subject matters are presented in a coherent and logical arrangement. In addition, application problems and final work projects have been prepared to guide the students through their learning process.
• The content of this textbook has been tested and put to the proof for many years with thousands of students. I can witness not only that lectures have been well received and enjoyed by the students but also that their final exams success rate has been high.
• From my own experience three recommendations stand out. When teaching a given subject, the scientific preparation level of the instructor must be several notches above the one that would strictly be required for class room lectures; otherwise you may find it difficult to answer unexpected questions raised by advanced students. A second aspect has to do with the utilization of audiovisual aids; use them very sparingly and prudently; otherwise you will soon notice that somehow your students got "disconnected" from you. Finally, as far as project-solving is concerned, provide your students with orientation guidelines and correct their mistakes, but please do not solve the problems for them; otherwise they will hardly be able to correctly assess their own skills.