Numerical approaches to teaching electromagnetics: a historical sketch and lessons from structural engineering

The use of numerical techniques in teaching engineering electromagnetics appears to be the subject of intense debate, and efforts at modernizing the curriculum using computer methods are controversial because of the crowded nature of the curriculum. It is pointed out that civil and aerospace engineers have already experienced this controversy in the teaching of structural engineering. There, the mixture of explicit approaches and numerical approaches has reached a point of stability, and numerical techniques are routinely used in undergraduate education. The authors survey recent historical developments in the use of numerical methods in electromagnetics education and similar developments in the teaching of structural engineering, and draw, from the latter, lessons relevant to the teaching of electromagnetics