Different strategies for preparing students to tackle the RF engineering challenges of tomorrow: A panel discussion

The trend is clear, technology innovations will increase at even faster rates in the future. This has been particularly true in communications as RF technology becomes ubiquitous in daily life. The IoT explosion and 5G revolution are driving increased demand for RF engineers posing a challenge to how schools keep up with that demand, and best prepare the next generation of RF engineers. This session will be a panel discussion bringing together voices from multiple universities sharing how they are each innovating their RF curriculum and helping prepare engineering students ready to tackle tomorrow's RF challenges. More specifically, we will learn about how the University of Arizona, the University of Notre Dame, Pennsylvania State University, the University of South Florida, and Georgia Institute of Technology are taking advantage of partnerships with industry to accelerate their impact. Each of these schools have their students demonstrate RF technical knowledge, design expertise, and hands-on measurement proficiency in the use of Keysight EEs of EDA software design tools and Keysight instruments. Students can complete qualification as Keysight Technologies, Inc RF and Microwave Industry-Ready Students demonstrating immediate value to prospective employers while confirming each university's commitment to preparing students for future industry contribution. The program utilizes an industry workflow environment providing a comprehensive way to simulate, measure and analyze communications components and systems. The panel, moderated by Keysight Technologies, will highlight what strategies each of these universities have adopted leveraging Keysight's RF and Microwave Industry-Ready Student Certification Program to develop RF industry-ready engineers. These include partnering with other third-party companies, use of particular resources, etc. Attendees will be inspired with ideas of what they too might be able to leverage to help prepare the next generation of RF engineers to start contributing to the abundant RF technology opportunities.