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The first ever I EEE RF & μW Boot Camp was organized by Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG), Mexico on July 24th, 2017. After the advent of Latin America Microwave Conference (LAMC 2016), there was a greater need of involving Young Professionals to provide them better insight in RF & Microwave practical design work. With a population of more than 5 million inhabitants, the metropolitan area of Guadalajara has been the most important technological cluster in the country. Recognized worldwide as the “Mexican Silicon Valley”, Guadalajara nests 21 universities of higher education and 2 federal scientific research centers. This Mexican technology hub now boasts a strong technology ecosystem with around 150 international tech companies and more than 300 startups.
With only the varied option of specialization in RF for masters & doctorates in Latin America, the lack of state of the art standards in RF Engineering for undergraduates has been a huge bottleneck. This poses a challenge for engineers to be highly specialized in the field of RF and microwaves as it limits the access to practicing these fields. The Boot Camp presented itself as a gateway to opportunities to generate spaces within the technical and academic community of region for the Young Professionals to acquire abilities in the field of microwaves.
With the support of the Guadalajara section, the MTT-S chapter, and the student branch of CINVESTAV-IPN (Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico), Jorge L. Urbina-Martinez facilitated the IEEE RF & μW Bootcamp. Coupled with the sponsorship from MTT-S and Keysight Technologies-Mexico, the event became the ‘Buzz of the town’ for RF enthusiasts and could exert influence on both students and professionals. The cooperation of Dr. Lina Aguilar-Lobo (UAG) and Dr. José Raúl Loo-Yau (CINVESTAV-IPN) ensured that participants had access to laboratories for hands-on experimentation with RF front end modules. Engineer Aldo Díaz de León (Keysight Technologies) shared interesting facts about wireless applications in the latest generation vehicles.The boot camp was developed to offer basic knowledge regarding the challenges faced in designing circuits at high frequency. Dr. Loo-Yau and his Ph.D. students briefly discussed the RF Front end module design and its importance in the telecommunications industry.
Daniel Ochoa-Armas started off with his 30-minute talk about RF Front end by taking a cell phone as an example. With a detailed demonstration of the stages that comprise an RF Front end, Daniel left the crowd intrigued by the latest technologies.
Ismary Lavandera-Hernandez presented a talk on designing a 2.4 GHz microstrip antenna and helped the fellow boot campers to realize their understanding about the antenna by implementing an EM simulation of the same. A factful discussion by Cain Perez-Wences focused on the importance of Mixer in the radio stages for the up/down conversion. Cain depicted the performance of simulations for different types of AM, FM, and PM modulations. In the end, Ulises Malagon-Reyes brought to light the crucial points one must take into consideration while designing Power Amplifiers with RF applications. It was commendable how he used the Microstrip as a tool for designing a small class AB amplifier. The regional coordinator of the IEEE MTT-S Latin America, Dr. Ernesto Rayas-Sánchez, marked his presence at the event and shared his virtues with the boot campers by making them understand why it’s important being associated with IEEE and MTT-S to progress in this field.
By starting off with 36 attendees comprising of young professionals and experienced personnel in the industry, the boot camp was successful in awakening an interest in the university and the professional community about the work being done in the design and research of high-frequency electronics.
For all those young professionals in Mexico trying to learn more about RF technology and trends please feel free to contact Jorge L. Urbina-Martinez (j.urbina-martinez.mx@ieee.org):
And to all other young professionals implementing successful technological growth in your area, let us know about it so that we can write about it. Stay tuned for more articles, because….
Abundance is not something we acquire, it’s something we tune into!!