Jacqueline Hochheiser, Corporate Communications
Throughout our history, Mini-Circuits has helped countless engineering students achieve academic growth: from NYU’s graduate students using our facility for 6G research, the WAMI Lab at the University of South Florida, and even the recent visit of students from the Hogeschool van Amsterdam to our Knapp Street location in Brooklyn, New York. When it comes to inspiring the next generation of bright engineers looking to impact the industry in positive ways, we feel that it’s our responsibility to aid in their progress.
WhenDr. Miranda has extensive knowledge in the field of using mathematics to build radar technology having majored in mathematics with a specialization in quantum mechanics when she attended UC Riverside for her college education. She even has a patented invention that she and her colleague created using radar for future applications. Dr. Analee Miranda (Clinical Assistant Professor of Mathematics) from Pace University reached out to our applications team about a special project she was doing with her students, we jumped at the opportunity to get her the supplies she needed.
Now, in her academic capacity, Dr. Miranda strives to bring hands-on experiences to her students in a field where this is not an overly common phenomenon. Instead of just teaching her students equations on a page, she likes to bring these situations to life with real-world examples and projects. Each summer, she leads a self-funded research project for her students, usually surrounding radar. Her students engage with real radar equipment and educational electrical circuits to bring her course work into reality.
This year’s project involved two Pace students and three high school students who were working together to construct a small radar system that can sense range, Doppler Effect, and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which is a radar system that renders two- and three-dimensional images. This project was originally done by MIT, and the instructions called for specific components made by specific manufacturers.
With the rising costs of RF components, Dr. Miranda was forced to look for alternative parts for her students’ system. As it happens, her father is an electrician by trade and an electrical engineering enthusiast. It was Dr. Miranda’s father that suggested she use Mini-Circuits for her system as he knew Mini-Circuits’ reputation for offering great value, reliability and performance.
When Dr. Miranda reached out to Mini-Circuits to inquire about the products for her system, she was delighted to find out that the company would provide the components she needed for free since she would be using them in an educational capacity. Through Mini-Circuits’ EZ sample policy, free samples of a variety of our products are available to any university upon registration for the program. With the help from Mini-Circuits, Dr. Miranda was able to provide all the materials needed for the project and stay well within budget.
Mini-Circuits components were used to help the students test whether radar waves could identify the shape of different objects. The team started with simple objects like water bottles, but soon stepped it up a notch with passing radar waves through human body parts. This project involved a lot of trigonometric functions and calculus concepts as well as the study of the physics of electricity, but this all proved to Dr. Miranda’s students that the equations they learn in class, can in fact be applied to real-world applications.
Thanks to Mini-Circuits, Dr. Miranda and her students were able to apply what they learn in the classroom to real situations. Our mission to inspire and expand the pool of young engineers never stops, and we constantly look for ways to encourage their growth and success. We’re pleased that our components were able to make Dr. Miranda’s project possible for her students and we look forward to more opportunities like this one in the future!
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