Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities

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January 22, 2015

Whether you are looking to train up for a new project, maintain your PE with Professional Development hours, or just brush up on the basics, 2015 is shaping up to be a great year for workshops, seminars, and other training opportunities.  Below is a compiled list of industry events, seminars/webinars, and online courses available. Although this list is not exhaustive by any means, it’s a good start and might help get the planning juices flowing before the calendar fills up.  Please contact us if you have questions or check out the individual links for more information.            

> Electromagnetic Compatibility

ETS-Lindgren offers hands-on training courses throughout the year. Below is a list of those courses currently scheduled through ETS-U:

Fundamentals of EMC Testing – A three-day hands-on course designed for engineers or lab technicians who want to expand their knowledge of EMC compliance testing, or are new to the subject and want to “learn how” quickly. Instruction is divided between class lectures and hands-on lab experience. Students are taught how to perform actual tests in a fully instrumented lab that includes a 3-meter anechoic chamber, GTEM, and a demonstration reverberation chamber. Students receive an illustrated textbook written specifically for the Fundamentals of EMC Testing course, with many of the test setups illustrated.

MIL-STD 461F Testing – A three-day hands-on course designed for engineers or lab technicians who want to expand their knowledge of Military-Standard 461F testing, or are new to the subject and want to “learn how” quickly. Instruction is divided between class lectures and hands-on lab experience. Students are taught how to perform actual tests in a fully instrumented lab that includes a semi-anechoic chamber and a conducted susceptibility test station. Students receive an illustrated textbook written specifically for the Fundamentals of EMC Testing course, with many of the test setups illustrated.

Overview of Radiated Immunity/Emissions Test Facilities – A three-day hands-on course designed for engineers or lab technicians who want to expand their knowledge of Radiated Immunity and Emissions test facilities, or are new to the subject and want to “learn how” quickly. This course will provide a basis for making informed radiated emission/immunity testing decisions. In addition, this course will also cover some standards overview, test planning issues, detailed coverage of major test techniques, sources of uncertainty in test results, and uncertainty propagation and impact on test results.

Henry Ott Consultants offers a three-day course covering the practical aspects of noise and interference control in electronic systems. More information is available on their website, both on the public and in-plant EMC courses.

Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering – This course will provide the participants with a working knowledge of electromagnetic compatibility principles. Emphasis is on cost-effective EMC design for digital systems. The commercial and industrial aspects of EMC Engineering are emphasized. The amount and complexity of mathematics will be kept to a minimum, and ideas will be illustrated with examples of actual case histories.

Kimmel Gerke Associates offers several public seminars throughout the year. Following are course descriptions and dates and locations of those courses currently scheduled:

Design for EMC & Signal Integrity (2 days)

EMI Troubleshooting (1 day – optional add-on) – This very popular class has been co-hosted by Kimmel Gerke Associates and Tektronix since 1992. The focus is “inside the box” at the electronics level – components, printed circuit boards, power electronics, grounding, and shielding, with over 30 specific fixes. The class is introductory and is regularly updated to reflect the latest EMC design issues.

Silent Solutions offers a series of courses designed to expand your skills and improve job performance. Following are their course descriptions.

Electronic Product Design and Retrofit for EMC – This two-day class gives engineering professionals the ability to successfully recognize, solve and avoid common EMI problems. Demonstrations using working hardware illustrate concepts such as radiated emissions, high-frequency antennas, radiated and conducted immunity, and crosstalk in connectors, cables, and IC packages.

EMC – Printed Circuit Board Design – This two-day class provides technical training intended for electrical and EMC engineers interested only in PC board design. It is an excellent follow-up class for students who have recently completed our two or three-day EMC class. Course topics include component placement, signal routing, and stack up, power bus decoupling, signal theory and signal integrity, “ground” splits, and a critique of bad application notes from IC vendors.

Circuit-to-Circuit Interference – This one-day class is for electrical design engineers at all levels challenged by electrical noise problems in products containing RF (wireless), analog, switching power supply, and digital electronics. Through a unique combination of lectures and hands-on experiments, class participants will master the ability to anticipate, solve and avoid electrical noise problems that can inhibit functionality in new product designs. 

Mechanical Design for EMC – This two-day class provides clear applications, theory, and demonstrations for the successful design of mechanical enclosures for good system emissions and immunity performance. Key topics include grounding at the PCB and enclosure, system ground maps, PCB component placement and control drawings, enclosure and cable shielding, PCB device “cans”, resonant slots and enclosures, heat sinks, unintentional antennas, as well as connectors, screw, and conductive gasket spacing.

Grounding for EMC, Signal Integrity and Instrumentation – Theory, applications and hardware demonstrations in this one-day class describes the effective design and troubleshooting techniques. The real-time demonstrations use a spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, and signal generators to illustrate inductance, common-impedance coupling, and ground loops. Specific examples of single-point, multi-point, “good” and “bad” grounds will be discussed.

Mastering the Spectrum Analyzer for Electrical Noise Measurement – SILENT’s one-day class is packed with practical tips, applications, and demonstrations to help make it easy for you to pick up a spectrum analyzer and start measuring and troubleshooting electrical noise and EMC problems. We will have a minimum of 3 different spectrum analyzers in class to help explain and demonstrate operating techniques that we have honed over the last twenty years.

Doug Smith is offering the following classes in 2015. For additional information, visit his website or email him at doug@emcesd.com.

Design Troubleshooting, EMC, and ESD – This three-day seminar takes the best points from Doug Smith’s seminars and compresses them into three action-packed days with lectures, videos, and many demonstrations on live circuits. Time is allowed for attendees to operate the experiments if they want. In two days, you will learn how to make accurate measurements in the lab and then apply those techniques to design verification and troubleshooting as well as EMC problems. The techniques and experiments are geared to the development lab and common equipment found there. During an optional third day, ESD/EMI at the system level will be covered as well as applying system level ESD stress to components, such as LEDs, in a test environment.

Dr. Tom Van Doren teaches participants how to diagnose and solve electromagnetic interference and signal integrity problems.

Grounding & Shielding of Electronic Systems – This course treats signals and currents; explains fundamental grounding, shielding, and signal routing principles; clarifies troublesome terminology; and demonstrates many techniques for identifying and fixing electrical interference problems. The principles will be described as concepts rather than theoretical equations. The emphasis on concepts will make the course useful for people with technical experience ranging from beginners to advanced designers. Since many noise emission and susceptibility problems are related to the mechanical design of systems, mechanical engineers and technicians can benefit from attendance. Several interface mechanisms and shielding techniques will be demonstrated. Additional details about the course can be found here.

Wyatt Technical Services offers several public seminars on EMC design and troubleshooting throughout the year.

> Product Safety and Environmental Testing 

AEMC Instruments offers the following public training opportunity:

Understanding Ground Resistance Testing Training Seminar (In Chicago – 9/22/15) – This one-day training seminar consists of two sessions. The first session consists of classroom presentations and discussions on all aspects of soil resistivity and ground resistance testing. The second session consists of on-site field tests demonstrating the different methods of ground resistance testing discussed during the first half of the day. Participants will have the opportunity for hands-on experience and demonstrations of proper testing procedures including measurement of soil resistivity, correct placement of test rods, using the 3-Point method, and proper use of the clamp-on test method.

> CST of America offers the following public courses throughout the year. Additional details and a complete course schedule are available on their website.

EMC/EMI Training – The CST STUDIO SUITE® EMC/EMI training course consists of 2 full days. This training class is intended for Engineers involved in Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), Electromagnetic Interference (EMI), Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3), and antenna integration.

Signal Integrity & Power Integrity Training – This 2-day hands-on training course is focused on modeling and solver overview and focuses on EDA/SI/PI applications. The CST MWS Signal Integrity training course consists of 2 full days. It is helpful to be familiar with the Getting Started manual. This training course is focused on modeling and solver overview and concentrates on SI/PI applications.

Training for EDA / Signal Integrity – This CST MWS training course consists of 2 full days. It is helpful to be familiar with the Getting Started manual. This training course is focused on modeling and solver overview and concentrates on EDA / SI / PI applications.

Microwave & Antenna Training – This 2-day hands-on training course focuses on modeling and solver overview and concentrates on antenna simulation. 

Antenna Placement Training – The training consists of one full day. It is intended for customers that are already familiar with the modeling/ solving part of CST or participated in the 2 days training on antennas. This training course is focused on antenna placement simulations.

Multiphysics Training – The MPS training consists of one full day. It is intended for customers that are already familiar with the modeling/ solving part of CST or participated in beginner training. This training course is focused on various em-thermal and mechanical coupled simulations.

> Equipment Reliability Institute offers the following public courses throughout the year. Visit their website for more details about each course and a detailed schedule.

Fundamentals of Random Vibration and Shock Testing, HALT, ESS, HASS Measurements, Analysis and Calibration

Military Standard 810G Testing

Understanding, Planning, and Performing Climatic and Dynamic Tests Thermal & Vibration Reliability

O’Brien Compliance Management offers a training course in IEC 60601, the medical electrical equipment standards for basic safety and essential performance.

IEC 60601 Series, 3rd Edition Training – This course is an intense 3-day training course. There are presentation slides, frequent references to source standards, and skill implementation work group exercises. Participants are encouraged to ask questions about the safety requirements, and how they apply to products currently under development. Our course continues to evolve to stay up to date with the latest standards, interpretations, and regulatory guidance.

> Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) 

The ESD Association holds educational opportunities throughout the year both online and at events. For full details, visit the ESD Association’s website.

Fundamental Handling Practices, Basic ESD Control Program, and Simplified Measurements – This 2-day tutorial set is specifically focused on providing practical ESD information to small to midsize electronic and related companies who do not have in-house ESD experts but want to ensure themselves that they have good ESD practices and processes in place to protect their products. This series is designed primarily for personnel working in a contract manufacturer, parts distributor, electronic repair facility, and electronic field service organizations.

> Private/Custom Seminars

Many experts offer private seminars designed to train select personnel at your location. These seminars offer companies an opportunity to train multiple compliance personnel with a customized approach designed for their needs. Following is a list of experts who offer private seminars:

Cherry Clough Consultants – Seminars allow for a customized approach to training in basic and advanced EMC design, the EMC Directive, and EMC engineering practices for EMC testing techniques and EMC functional safety.

Kimmel Gerke Associates, Ltd. – Kimmel Gerke offers seminars on EMC design fundamentals and techniques for ensuring EMC Compliance.

Henry Ott Consultants – Henry Ott Consultants offers one to three-day EMC seminars (in plant and public) on over 25 different topics, including “Partitioning and Layout of Mixed-Signal PCBs” and EMC Considerations in Switching Power Supply Designs.”

Wyatt Technical Services, LLC – An independent consulting firm that specializes in EMC design, troubleshooting and training services to commercial and industrial manufacturers with global distribution in the consumer, computer, network & telecommunications, industrial and scientific industries.

> On-Line Training

If webinars are your preferred style of learning, many companies sponsor on-demand style webinars for viewing at your convenience. Please visit the following sites for specific topics:

Associated Research – Associate Research’s webinars provide detailed information on many aspects of electrical safety testing.

> CST of America – CST of America offers webinar programs throughout the year that focus on design challenges across the field of electrical engineering, in microwaves and RF, EMC, EDA, and charged particle dynamics.

Kimmel Gerke Associates – Kimmel Gerke offers webinars throughout the year.

SIEMIC 2015 Regulatory Compliance Webinars – Presented in a series of monthly one-hour presentations, these webinars will present the latest regulation changes, importation requirements, and hot compliance issues for the most important and dynamic market countries.

Elite Electronic Engineering, Inc. also offers webinars throughout the year and also offers on-demand viewing of past webinars.

> Industry Symposia and Table-Top Programs

These annual symposia are an excellent resource for extensive technical training, and the exchange of new ideas and technical concepts. The benefit of attending these events is that attendees can sample a vast array of workshops quickly and efficiently while networking with colleagues and professionals with the same interests.

2015 IEEE Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility & Signal Integrity (EMCSI)
March 15-21, 2015 – Santa Clara, CA

> 31st International Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES 2015)
March 22-26, 2015 – Williamsburg, VA

ESTECH 2015: Fostering Revolutionary Thinking (Environmental Stress-Focused)
April 27-30 — Danvers, MA

9th Annual International Electrostatic Discharge Workshop (IEW)
May 4-6, 2015 – Lake Tahoe, CA

> IEEE Symposium on Product Compliance Engineering
May 18-20, 2015 – Chicago, IL

Joint IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility and EMC Europe 2015 
August 16-22, 2015 – Dresden, Germany

> IEEE EMC Society 2015 Regional Events

Dearborn, MI: May 7, 2015 – Contact: Scott Lytle, Yazaki North America, scott@emcsociety.org

Bloomington, MN: September 15, 2015 – Contact: Dan Hoolihan, (651) 213-0966, danhoolihanemc@aol.com

Labels: Professional Development; Training for Engineers; Webinars