IIT Kanpur invites Engineers to join Applied Electromagnetics free course through NPTEL

MHRD funded the Nptel project that provides online courses for free. It has courses from IITs and IIMs that students can take as per their streams. All you have to do is login to the website, filter out your stream and enrol in the free course. For now, here is a course that Engineers can take in Applied Electromagnetics from IIT Kanpur.

Who can enrol in the course?

The course is intended for Engineers. So, any BTech student can enrol in the course easily. Also, it is a core UG course. So, if you intend to go into courses like high-speed digital design, RF and microwave, fibre optics and antennas, you will need this course.

You can even join companies like Sterlite, Analog Devices, GE, Comsol India, Matlab, Texas Instruments, Defense labs. But even if you have a basic knowledge of electricity and magnetism at the level of high-school and basic Class 12th maths, you can take the course.

Timeline of the course

The course is 12-week long. It will start on July 20, 2020. It will end on October 9, 2020. The final exam will be on October 18, 2020. If you are enrolling, the last date to apply is July 27. 2020.

Who will teach the course?

The course teacher will be Dr Pradeep Kumar. Not only he is a faculty at IIT Kanpur, but he is also an IIT Madras Alumni. He has a PhD in quantum cryptography. Under the Dept of Electrical Engineering, he is also associated with the Centre for Lasers and Photonics.

He has published over 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He also holds three patents (one granted and two pending). His MOOC courses on NPTEL has been very popular with more than 15000 enrollments from across the country.

Additionally, at IIT Kanpur, he and his students work in the fields of quantum key distribution, nonlinear fibre optics for signal processing, mitigation of linear and nonlinear impairments in coherent optical communications, mode-locked fibre lasers and chaos, fibre-optic sensors for undersea applications, and fibre-optic modelling. He is also actively involved in the LIGO-India effort under IndiGO umbrella. His lab develops single-photon detectors, single- and subcarrier RF transceivers, and is currently working on true random number generators.

What will the course teach?

The course is wide and varied. According to the manual, the course begins with an in-depth study of transmission lines. These play an important role in high-speed digital design and signal integrity of PCBs. After a brief review of the necessary mathematics, the course covers the high-level mathematics. This includes the analytical and numerical solution of Laplace's and Poisson's equations, quasi-static analysis of capacitors and skin effect, inductance calculations, and Maxwell equations. Moving ahead, it covers wave propagation in free-space, ferrites, and periodic media in waveguides and antennas.

The course includes a balance between theory, programming, and applications. Further, IIT Kanpur Prof, Pradeep Kumar will also discuss several case studies.

How to obtain a certificate?

The course is free to enrol and learn. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam. NPTEL may conduct the exam in-person at any of the designated exam centres. For that, you will have to pay a fee of Rs 1000. Like said before, the exam is scheduled on 18th October 2020. It will be in two sessions:  Morning 9 am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2 pm to 5 pm.

Also, NPTEL will carry out the final score based on the average assignment score (25%) and exam score (75%).

Read more: 5 Indian Government provided free online courses with certificates to do during lockdown